← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
From 0 to 157K Followers: How Monty Lans Built a Magnetic Brand on Instagram
00:44:17
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- [00:00]
A
What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Call Her Creator, Powered by Stan. I'm your host, Kaitlyn Rhodes, and today I have one of my bestest creative friends ever, Monty. What's up, man?
- [00:14]
B
Let's grow. What's up? What's up, Kate?
- [00:18]
A
He's the best if Monty, what's your Instagram handle? Is it Monty?
- [00:22]
B
Monty lands. M, O, N, T, Y, L, A, N, S. Okay, so it's just here.
- [00:27]
A
Okay. Yeah. So Monty is like, seriously one of the greatest people you will ever meet. I had the privilege of meeting him last summer at Stan's Million Dollar Mastermind. And I just immediately when you walk into the room, you light it up, just because you're so sweet and joyous and happy in what you do. And so I'm like, I have to get Monty on the podcast because he does such an excellent job at creating content and you've grown your following and. And you've got a membership. Do you call it a membership? What do you call it earlier?
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B
Yeah, it's a club. It's a community. Private community.
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A
Yeah, we'll dive into that in a little bit, too. He's hilarious. He does dancing, he pranks his mother. All the things that truly make you stop mid scroll. Monty does. So today we're going to learn about how he's built this really incredible personal brand. It's magnetic, it's intentional. You know, all the behind the moments, behind the scene moments, the killer content strategy. I just kind of want to talk about all of it. And hopefully Monty can help you guys get out of your slump. If you're scared to post, if you're. I don't know, we don't know what's holding you back, but we'll. We'll find out today. But, right, start with you, Monty. Like, what. What even inspired you to pick up your phone one day and say, you know what? I'm gonna start posting to Instagram.
- [01:48]
B
Yeah, that's funny. First of all, thank you for inviting me on here. You already know we're homies and I got nothing but love for you. And yeah, we definitely, like, connected really strong at the Stan event. And it was like, yeah, this is one of my new buddies. Right? So just the bubbly, fun loving personality. Definitely magnetic. And yeah, you know, you know, going to your question, what told me to, like, pick up the phone and start creating content? Like, if we want to get technical. I have been a content creator since I was, like, a teenager, early teenager. I was always, like, in my family, out of all my siblings, like, I'm the funny guy. I'm the silly guy. Like, everybody has a sense of humor in my family, but I was. I'm always the over the top, willing to make crazy faces, do crazy dances, wear stupid outfits just to, like, make people laugh. And I think as a kid, it was just like a. Kind of like a. Not a. I guess, like a coping mechanism to a certain degree, but it was also just how I, like, made friends and how I, like, got rid of, like, awkwardness and tension and things like that. You know, I remember, like, at my. At my graduation, like, when I walked across stage in kiddie college, AKA like, preschool kindergarten. I, like, had like this big old Steve Harvey suit on and, like, I got my. My diploma and I like, did like a funny dance in the middle of the stage and everybody started laughing. And I think, like, from that moment I was like, oh, I like making people laugh. So I always had that. And then, you know, I started picking up, you know, my phone and like, recording, doing, like, funny skits and funny videos. Mainly when I got into college, so I. I got into comedy and like, making sketch comedy and skits and then got into stand up. And, you know, I've always had a camera in front of my face for some. Some reason. And of course, when I did business stuff, I, you know, got into, like, motivational videos and things like that too. So, you know, content creation. I've been doing that for a while, like over 10 years, but for the purpose of, like, social media and growing a personal brand, you know, I'd say probably like the last, like, eight years. Seven. Seven, Eight years. Yeah. Yeah.
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A
Did you get inspired by someone else that was already doing it on Instagram or like, how did you.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Utilize it as a business?
- [04:08]
B
Yeah, so the. It started with Instagram. I would say maybe about like, eight years ago. My wife and I, big foodies, like, we bond over food, we obsess over food, we love going and trying different restaurants and things like that. And I don't know, I just, you know, I was on Instagram and I just started seeing, like, these foodies, like, these food influencers. And they were like, posting these, like, drooling pictures. These pictures that make you drool and make your mouth water. And, like, I'm looking. They got like, thousands of likes and tens of thousands of followers. And then I saw, like, there were these creators that were like, yeah, we do this full time. And I'm like, what do you mean? You do what full time? They're like, well, we eat full time. And I'm like, ah, that sounds cool. But, like, what do you really do? Like, yeah, no, like, we get paid to, like, create content and to, like, go to restaurants. Like, restaurants want us to feature them on our. On our channel, so they pay us to come eat there. I'm like, what? So I'm like, Yo, Dave, McDonald's is down the block. They got this Chinese restaurant around the corner. Let's go get. Let's go get our camera. Let's go take some. You mean we could get paid? And at the very least, like, some of these creators are like, yo, we eat for free, like, wherever we go. Like, because I asked. I'm like, I'm like, yo, like, like, do they make you pay for the food? They're like, no. Like, all they want us to do is just make a post about them. And I'm like, what? I was like, I could take pictures of. Of hamburgers and hot dogs and. And, you know, saying little sushi rolls and stuff like that. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, yo, babe, we about to be food influencers. So I just got. And at the time, I was like, we were broke. We were living in, like, a small, one bedroom, rundown apartment. I was working at, like, the ymca. I was trying to build, like, a network marketing business at the same time, but it was just like, something that passed time, but it was also fun, and it was a thrill behind, like, this new thing. And yeah, we, long story short, just started going to restaurants, taking nice pictures, posting it up, making, like, a nice little review about our experience about the food and it. Next thing you know, we got thousands of followers coming in. And then all of a sudden, local restaurants are hitting us up to come in for a free tasting. And then we built, like, a system around it. And I think, you know, we stopped after a while. I definitely want to go back. That'll probably be like, one of my next ventures. But, yeah, we grew our following to about, like, 10,000 followers. We ate. Yeah.
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A
You gave up on this?
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B
Well, we weren't really making a lot of money from it. You know, we get. We did get some paid brand deals, right? Like, so we made a few thousand dollars in, like, paid brand deals. But yeah, we just. Just got sidetracked. You know, we needed more money. We need to get back to work. But we did eat, like, tens of thousands of dollars of free food. We got invited out to crazy events. We went to, like, Heineken headquarters. We got invited out to the Explorers Club. You know, you have to be like, the Elite of elite to get invited to the Explorers Club in New York City. But, yeah, we got invited out to that and so many other events. It was just. It was just amazing. But that was, like, my first moment where I realized, like, being a content creator can absolutely change your life if you actually take it serious. So, yeah, that was when I really first started picking up a phone and recording content with intention on Instagram.
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A
With those 10,000 followers, did you. Was there, like, a turning point or, like a viral moment that helped you get those 10,000, or was it just consistently showing up?
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B
Yeah, so it was consistently showing up. Back then, there was a lot of, like, engagement groups that help you get, like, a boost of reach and views and things like that. Now it's, like, forbidden to do an engagement group.
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A
But I have an engagement pod, too, so I had a. I don't talk about this a lot, but I had a mommy blog.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Had my first kid. And I was in some engagement pods, too, with that account, you see.
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B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it worked. No, it worked. It worked at the time, but, like, the algorithm changed and, like, people changed and it got, like, frowned upon. So we kind of went away from that. But we also had, you know, we would do, like, some promos, like, like go to, like, a promo page, promote our food or whatever, try to get, like, a boost of. Of views. And, you know, we did. We did some other things. There were, like, certain, like, tools, like apps that you can use that would, like, help you get a little bit more exposure organically in front of people. So we, like, dabbled with that, and most of it was just, like, organic posting content. Follow, unfollow, follow, follow. You know what I mean? Like, we did that whole thing, too. We were just trying all the hacks, all the tricks to just grow our following. And eventually it. We had content that just brought in natural followers because people just loved our videos. You know, I have a sense of humor, so I was acting silly. Like, I would. I would be dancing with food and making silly faces. Yeah. So people loved it, and we kind of built our community around that.
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A
Yeah, I love that. Okay, so you're doing that. You kind of step away from it, and then do you immediately go to build your own personal brand or was.
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B
There a good question? So how I got into what I do now, that was a result of the pandemic, you know. Yeah. In 2020, so, you know, I was doing, like, residential solar. And then because of the pandemic and, like, quarantine and all that, the company kind of shut down their operations. So I was living on, like, unemployment for a little while. I was living on, like, the PPP loan for a little bit because I was still in, like, network marketing as, like, a solopreneur, sole proprietor type thing. So I qualify for the ppp, But I just. I just kind of. I guess I kind of felt it fell into, like, depression because I'm like, yo. Like, I'm not. Like, I don't want to live off the government. Like, I'm like. Like, it's good that I have this money, this unemployment, and ppp, but, like, at the end of the day, like, I know I'm meant for something more, you know, Like, I want to do something. And I've never been a job person. Like, I. Every job that I've had, I either got fired or I quit. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just not built to work a job, work for somebody else, or be bound to a certain place against my will. You know what I mean? And I was like, you know what I want to. I know I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I know I have a creative gift. I know I like making people laugh, and I like helping people. What is something I can do? Like, I'm like, talking to God. I'm like, yo, God. Like, what can I do to make money helping people, but use my gifts and actually enjoy what I'm doing? And I had, like, this epiphany one random night, and I thought about, like, everything that my wife and I did with our foodie page, and I was like, yo, like, well, I can create. I'm a good content creator. I have an idea of, like, how. How to build a community on, like, Instagram. So what if I become, like, an Instagram coach? You know what I mean? Like, I don't know everything, but if I'm at level four, I can at least teach people who are at level 1, 2, 3, you know what I mean? And make some money there. So, yeah, something told me, you know what? Get into coaching, bro. Because I already had friends that were talking about becoming influencers and things like that, so I knew that there was a market for it. And it was perfect timing because the Pandemic brought everybody home and in front of their cell phone on social media, right? This is when apps like Clubhouse were actually popular because you can go anywhere, right? So you would just want to, like, spend your time joining in conversations and still having a sense of human connection. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna make a presentation. I said, babe, I'm making a presentation. So it was like 8 o' clock at night. And from 8 o' clock at night to, like, 4 in the morning, I was working on my first, like, presentation, like, coaching program. And I put it all together, had to be. I think it was like, 50 something slides. I probably still have it somewhere. It was like 50 something slides. And I just picked up the phone and started, like, calling friends, like, yo, you still want to be that travel influencer? Yo, you still want to, like, learn how to, like, grow on Instagram? Because they saw what I. What. What my wife and I did with our foodie page, and they were always asking, like, yo, man, I wish I could do that. I got this idea, but I don't know where to start. So I was like, yo, let me get some proof of concept by working with some friends. You know what I mean? I'm not gonna charge them, like, a crazy amount of money. I do need to see if people will actually pay for it. Obviously, my friends are willing to, like, pay $100 or whatever. Cause it's nothing to support me in that way. And so I just started working with close friends. Like, a lot of them came from the company that I was working with in network marketing. And I got great feedback. They were like, yo, like, Monty, you really know yourself. I didn't know any of this stuff that you were telling me. Like, this is amazing. And I was like, cool. I was like, like, you know, how much. How much would you actually pay for this? I would ask that question, like, I know you paid me $100, but, like, how much would you actually pay for this? Now that you see how much value is in, they're like, oh, yeah. And I definitely would pay, like, 3 to $500 first for what you did. And I'm like, okay, that's a little scary, but okay. It's good to know. I'm like, three or five hundred dollars. Like, part of me was like, the other side of me was like, oh, you really gonna take that much money from people? You know? So, yeah, but I had the proof of concept, and I was like, all right, game on. Like, I'm gonna really do this. And, you know, that's. That's where the journey kind of kicked off. And I'll. I'll shut up so you can ask me another question because love that.
- [13:09]
A
So I remember seeing your videos and being like, who's that guy? He's funny. Yeah, because I'm also funny on my reels. Like, I try not to be too serious. So I was like, who's this guy that's being all funny? He's kind of.
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B
And then, yeah, yeah.
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A
And I'm like, oh, my God, I love him. How do you balance. Speaking of funny, like, how do you balance between creating entertainment, entertaining content, but also content that's going to really convert people and build those deeper relationships?
- [13:36]
B
My. My sense of humor is my superpower. I feel like everybody has a superpower, right? In your personality, in your perspective, your Persona, your environment. You know what I mean? Your backstory, your cadence, the way you talk. Everybody has a superpower, right? And I think part of evolving as a creator is exploring and identifying what that superpower is, and then it's also embracing that superpower because we live as ourselves our entire life, so we don't necessarily see something special in ourselves. It's hard to look at yourself and be like, that's. That's great about me. That quality is amazing. This is what makes me stand out to you. It's like, my voice sounds crackly, and I. I hate. It sounds like I'm gargling when I talk. But, like, to other people, it's like, yo. Like, your voice is so distinct. Like, it's captivating. You're like, it's not captivating. It actually hurts. You know, I'm just. You know what I mean? So, like, some people, I hate their voice, but it is actually their distinct voice that makes people want to actually pay attention to them. For me, it's my. My sense of humor. Comedy. Humor has always been a part of my life. It heals, you know, it heals wounds. It gets rid of awkward silences. It makes me feel comfortable. It helps me make friends. It helps me find joy and create joy. It's always been a part of my life, so I knew that when I. It actually got me out of depression. Like, so at the end of the day, like, you know, I knew that it was already an authentic part of who I am, so I just had to figure out how to, like, tie important messages and lessons from, like, the social media aspect to my sense of humor, use my humor as an amplifier or use my humor as a way to attract people. But obviously, there's a serious side of me as well, and I'm a Gemini. I don't want to get into the whole horoscope thing, but, like, the way my personality is, you know, I have a serious side, but I also have a very silly side, right? And I just found a natural way to combine humor and value and call it edutainment. You know what I mean? Like, that's a thing. So my humor is what grabs people's attention. It's what makes people feel connected to me. But the value is also what helps them feel empowered, feel informed, and, you know, feel like they can do something new that they didn't do before because they didn't have the information. And, you know, and I have the serious content, too, because I want it to be a balance. I don't want people to just always take me as a joke. I want them to know that I also have a serious or professional side as well, and that, you know, that's a part of my nature too. Like, we can have a serious conversation. When I'm. When I'm mentoring you, I want. I want people, when they come to my page, I want them to see all of what they will potentially experience if they were to hire me as a coach, if they were to work with me, you know, so it's like, hey, this guy, we're going to laugh. But he's also going to. He's going to get in my. He's going to get on me. He's going to hold me accountable. He's going to call me out on the things I'm doing wrong, when I'm being lazy, if I'm procrastinating, if I'm, you know, staying stuck in my own ways, being stubborn. Like, he's also going to do that as well. And he also has, like, a deep intellect that creates the purpose or that. That. That's driven from his purpose. You know, I mean, he has an intellect to understand the. The psychographic or the psychology aspect of what I'm going through, right? Because being a creator, it is such a complete experience. Like, you experience so many elements of. Of life as a creator, right? First of all, you're an alchemist. You're turning intangible ideas into tangible impact, right? Tangible impressions, tangible transformations, tangible connections. There is a sense of competition and accountability because you see other people that are thriving in environments that you're using as an excuse, they're using as a reason. I got kids I can't create. And this person has 10 kids, and they're creating with their 10 kids in the video. Oh, you know, I got a busy work life, and it's like, this person has three jobs, and they're still creating content on their lunch break and growing their following and selling their products. And it's like, so you get this sense of accountability because you see people who have just as much or even more controversy and adversity in their life who are still making things happen. So it's like, okay, I got to stop making excuses. And then there is that sense of competition too, because it's like, hey, if that person could do it, I can do it. And, you know, there's so much to learn, so you're constantly a student. I think being a creator forces you to embody and embrace so many aspects of growing as a human being. And that's why I love being a creator. You know what I mean? And we don't have to go too deep into it. But I'm a man of God. I follow Jesus personally, and I know that being created in his image, I have some of the gifts. I have the gift of creativity. Like, that's a gift from God to be able to, like, God spoke and created the world. So we think and we can go on an app like Cap Cut and make a video and turn it into, like, this full blown production that thousands of people see. And it shifts their emotions and it gives them hope and it gives them ideas to create things that make an impact on their community. And it goes on and on and on and on and on. So it goes really deep how I look at it. But, yeah, hopefully I answered your question.
- [19:09]
A
No. Yeah.
- [19:10]
B
Wow.
- [19:11]
A
I knew bringing you on would be powerful, but you just make me choke up sometimes. You're really good with your words and. Thank you explaining things. Okay, so I just feel emotional. Okay.
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B
If you cry, I'm gonna cry.
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A
I don't even. Okay. I don't even know. I guess where I'll go next is, you know, you start, you decide, you make a decision. Hey, I have these gifts. Here's how I'm going to use them. Let me go be an Instagram coach. So then what happens? Do you start? Do you have a plan of action or do you just start posting all messy? Like, what. What happened?
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B
No plan. No plan at all. I didn't. I didn't have a plan. I was just. Everything was just off the cuff. Like, I would just look and see intuitively, Just kind of study the nuances of what other Instagram coaches were doing, what they were talking about, you know, what topics keep popping up from one coach to the next, one creator to the next. Okay. Everybody's talking about the algorithm, Everybody's talking about hooks, Everybody's talking about captions. Everybody's talking about hashtags. Okay, cool. So why. What are all the things I need to know about hashtags? And this is when you can go in the hashtag and they had the recent section in the you know, the top section. So I would just go to the top section. I would look at what the top performing content, what the creators were talking about, and I'm like, okay, well, that makes sense. I can talk about that. That makes sense too. Now I understand that. So now I can teach that and I can coach that. So I was doing a lot of picking and, you know, mimicking from other creators while I was just trying to hone in my own skills. My content sucked. I mean, I didn't know how to position my content to actually appeal to the right audience. So most of my growth in the beginning didn't come from just organic content bringing in followers. I used here's. So this is where the story really unfolds and people are going to be like, oh, okay, this is what it takes. I. We were in a pandemic. I didn't know exactly how to, like, I didn't have a content strategy. I had to figure that out as I was building a plane while it was going down, right? And I went on this app called Clubhouse that my friend, a couple of people had told me about. But I ignored it because it was just like, I'm not trying to get distracted with too much stuff. One of my best friends said, yo, with what you're doing now with, with Instagram, you need to get on Clubhouse because you can join so many conversations related around social media and you can network and you can get clients and followers and things like that. I said, all right, cool. So I went on the app. My first time on the app, I went on with my friend and we were on the app for, no lie, eight hours straight. So we went into a networking room and I was just kind of hanging out to kind of get the nature of the app. So I was hopping from one room to the next. And then he said, yo, there's just one room where you can. There's like four or five hundred people in there, bro. And like, it'll take you some time, but they let you introduce yourself. And with 400, 500 people in the room, bro, you could definitely, like, grow your following off of that. So we only had 15 seconds because there were so many people in the room. So they would go one by one by one. And I get into the room. I'm person number 488. So I'm like, dang, I gotta wait for 487 people to speak first. So multiply that by 15 seconds. And then in between, the hosts are talking about other things and promoting their own stuff. So it finally gets to me. And I'm like, hey, what's up? My name is Monte. I'm an Instagram coach. I teach people how to build a personal brand and grow their business and grow their following on Instagram. Go to my profile on Clubhouse, hit the button, follow me on Instagram, shoot me a dm. Let's talk about how I can help you. Whatever. So it's just something very basic. And I just kept doing that every single day. Like, I was on Clubhouse for, like, no lie, at least four hours every single day, Monday through Sunday, for like the first six to eight months. Just. That was how I grew my Instagram.
- [23:12]
A
So many other people will do one viral video, and then they got us, and then you got Monty over here putting in the work.
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B
Yeah. So it was all I knew at the time. It took me. It took me a year to go from 5,638 followers, which is like where I started when I said, I'm going to be an Instagram coach. It took me a year to get from that to 10,000 followers. And majority of that was off of Clubhouse. Along. Along the way, you know, I became more popular on the app and in the room because I kept going to the same room. So people come familiar. The host of the room, the moderators became familiar with me, and then they would pull me up and let me be a moderator. So now when you're a moderator, you sit at the top of the room, and everybody that comes in, they. You're like. You're like a head honcho in the. In the. In the club, right? In the. In the. We all fam. Like, like, there would be. All the hosts would be at the top. So essentially, you become one of the people that everybody wants to know and everybody wants to get in good graces with. So I went in these rooms often enough, and I always share some type of value. I always brought good energy. So they just, like, made me a moderator. And that's how more people started following me from Clubhouse to Instagram. And eventually my friend and I started our own club on Clubhouse called the Digital Hustler Dynasty. And shout out to whoever hears this that is from the Digital Hustler Dynasty if they ever hear this. But yeah, and then we grew that community to like 4,000 people. And we did rooms every single day. We had a networking room. We had two social media rooms. We had a faith and fellowship room. We had a business room. We had a room for almost every important topic that tied together around social media and business and faith. And yeah, once we did that. That's when I actually launched a legitimate, like, product that people can buy. And it was like a one day workshop. And it was like $25. And I promoted it on Clubhouse. I promoted it inside our group. And that one workshop, I made like $4,000. And it was a $25 for the workshop. So do the math on however many people that was. But that was when I was like, okay, I got something, I got something.
- [25:15]
A
You know, it's always that first sale. You're like, holy crap, you can actually make money with it. So yours was. My first product was also 25. So yours was too?
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B
Yeah, yeah, it was 25 workshop.
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A
For someone that's listening, that's like, okay, I want to do something like that. Like what, what do you always recommend to people that are just getting started? How do you tell them to make money? Like, what should be their first thing?
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B
Yeah, I think, you know, a digital, a digital product is, is the easiest way, the best way to like ease into selling online, right? And you can literally just make it a $5 product. It's really just about doing your research and paying attention to find out what is the information that people are most desperate to have. Like what are the popular questions people are asking? And then can I tie my own system or a specific strategy that's effective around whatever that challenge is that a lot of people have. And you create that product. It can be a ebook, it could be your signature checklist, it could be a short video series where you're giving tutorials, step by step tutorials on how to do a specific thing. And just for proof of concept, you charge a small amount, $5. You know what I mean? Let me just, let me just see if this is something people will pay for at all. Will somebody pull out their wallet to pay for this? And you see, you know, and if you notice that somebody buys it and it's like, okay, this is great. And you have to do your market research. So the best way to go about it, I would say, is first do stuff for free to get proof of concept and to get testimonials, right? You don't know unless you're just super confident, right? Then this won't apply to you if you're like 100% confident in what you're doing and you want to just go straight for making the money. But like, if you're unsure about your course, your product yourself, this is what you do. Go do something for free, right? Hey guys, I'm hosting a free masterclass or I'm looking For five people that want to get free coaching on how to do X, Y and Z. And you work with those five people or three people, or even one or two people, however many, as if they paid you $1,000 or $2,000, you give them the full experience over deliver, right? And in exchange you say, hey, listen, all I want, if you like, what I give you is an honest testimonial and permission to share that testimonial and use it in my marketing and use it to, you know, promote my service. You get that green light, give them the service and you get feedback, right? Have like a questionnaire asking them about the experience. Hey, where did you think I can improve? You know, what did you like about the experience? What would you change about this experience? What do you think there needs to be more of? Or was it just amazing? And then now you know how to improve it? But now you have five testimonials of success and you have five case studies of people who have used your system or took your course, did your, followed your guide and they got results. So now you create content around that and you tell their success story. And now you use that to get paying clients for your next five people, right? Hey, doing a special sale, right? Normally it's this price, but we're doing it at half off, right? Here's what we did for Sally, here's what we did for Michael, here's what we did for Brett. We could do it for you. And now that snowball effect starts to kick in where you can scale up your offer and scale up your products. And that's really all it is with digital products, is what, what is in high demand? What do people need in terms of information systems? You know, transformations that I have knowledge on or I can, and I can create a product around and offer it to that audience. And then you just watch, rinse and repeat. Yeah.
- [28:58]
A
When you said you did a one day workshop, like, where that was it like a virtual, like they get to spend. How many, how many hours did you do?
- [29:05]
B
Yeah, so it was, I did a one day workshop and then I did a two day workshop. It was like, it was about reels. So this is when reels started becoming a thing, which was perfect for me because my, my graphic content, my carousel con, it was just terrible. It wasn't hitting at all. Like, I can scroll back now. I still got like six likes. But I was hyped though. I was like, yo, six people. I got six people. Six people rock with me. You know, I'm saying, like, I don't care about your viral. Okay, about your little viral. Viral post. Don't get much. A little viral carousel. I got six real ones, y' all.
- [29:34]
A
See, I love him so much. Hilarious.
- [29:38]
B
I got. I got six real ones. Holla at your boy. Right? Like 100 men versus one gorilla. I got viral video or viral post versus my six likes. Holla. All right. But, you know, yeah, I mean, I. I was just. It was. It was definitely a. A journey for me. It was definitely a journey for me.
- [29:59]
A
Your journey is very different from a lot of the other creators that I've interviewed. So I'm love. I love that I get to talk with you about this, because most people are like, oh, you know, I had one reel go viral, and then blah, blah, blah.
- [30:10]
B
Oh, my God. Ye.
- [30:12]
A
And it's. I can't believe that you spent as much time as you did in another social media platform pushing another. That's insane. You put in the work.
- [30:22]
B
Yeah, but that's what it is. That's what it is. Like, I just give us a quick analogy. I know you have another question, but, like, no, you're good. Most people are looking for that viral reel to just change everything. And it's like this whole, like, myth about what it takes to actually be successful. Like, the overnight success doesn't happen overnight. It happens over months, over years. It happens over tons of repetitions. Like, you're going to. Most people are going to go through these three phases. Whoever's listening to this, nine times out of ten, you're going to go through these three phases, and you can't skip. Like, phase number one is, I can't believe I'm doing all this work and I'm not getting any results. I'm not getting enough results. That's always phase one. And that period of time can be days. It could be weeks, it could be months, and it can even be years because it's dependent on your ability to learn and apply, and it's also dependent on your commitment to collapsing time frames. If you are doing something, if you're trying to get great at something and there's too much of a gap in between each repetition of you practicing that thing, you're never really going to retain enough information or skill development to carry over into the next level of success or productivity, Right? So if you're trying to learn how to do a transition, right, Or a certain edit, and you try it today, and then the next time you try it is a month from now. Well, between today and next month, you lost any information that you retained and it's like looking at a blank screen again. You understand what I'm saying? So it's like you're painting in the rain. You put a stroke, and it's raining for 30 days. When you go back to the canvas, there's nothing on there anymore because it washed off. You know what I'm saying? Like, you have to be. Yeah, you have to be at it every single day in order to actually retain. So it's like cooking. Cook the same meal every single day for 30 days. And by day 30, you don't need a recipe book, you don't need a measuring cup. You just know it instinctively. You don't have to think. You could be on the phone while you're making that meal. You could be watching the television show while you're cooking. You could be distracted while you're cooking because you made this meal so many times with very little space in between those reps that now it's second nature to you, right? A song. You hear a song and you play it on repeat all day. After about a week of listening to that song, you know it by heart, you become the artist, right? But if you listen to the song today and the next time you listen to it is two months from now, AKA you post one time today, and then you don't post again until next week, right? You're not building any momentum to actually retain loyalty from an audience because there's so much content out there that people can get distracted by anyway.
- [32:58]
A
There is a lot of listeners that are just getting started. What's your biggest piece of advice for them? If they're like, oh, my goal is 10,000 followers. Like, do you give them any kind of advice about that?
- [33:08]
B
Yeah, it's good to have a goal for how many followers you want. I think the most important thing is you need to write down, okay, who's my audience? Their demographic, you know, I mean, their age, their. Their gender, their location, you know, what they do, what their income is probably like, what's their psychographic? What are the things they're challenged with? What are the insecurities that they have? What are the worries that they have? Right? What's their lifestyle? What does their lifestyle look like? Because all of this caters to how you communicate with them and what you talk about in your content, right? And once you understand your audience on that level, then it's like, all right, what are the main pain points? And what pain points? Is there a solution that I can actually charge them for that they would pay for? You know what I mean? Like, A meaningful pain point, something that is important enough for them to want to change. And what do they, what's the transformation they desire? And then you make a list of those things and then you attach those pain points to the solutions, you attach those desires to stories that you tell connected to the solutions, and you create content. I say in the beginning you have to diversify to identify, right? So if you're starting from zero, you have to diversify your content to identify what, what is like the holy trinity, right? Content that serves the goal is focused on the goal. Content that is actually compelling and at the same time it feels true to who you are, right? Because if your content is like, let's say it is focused on whatever the topic is, it's focused on it's niche focus, it's the value that people need, but it's not creative or compelling enough, you're not going to get much reach, you're not going to get much engagement, right? If your content is compelling, but it's not focused on your niche, then there's no point in putting that content out because you're not going to get the right audience anyway. And if you have compelling content and content that's focused on your niche, but it's not true to you, well, now burnout becomes more possible, right? Now imposter syndrome starts to form, right? And now you kind of start questioning yourself and feeling discouraged because I have to put on this fake Persona every day because this is the Persona that people are buying into. You know what I mean? So you show up on social media in a way that you, it's not true to you in real life. So you have to diversify your content styles. All right, I'm trying green screen. I'm going to try lip syncs. I'm going to try voiceover. I'm going to try storytelling. I'm going to try transitions. I'm going to try B roll with text. Try everything to one figure out, okay, what content formats are sustainable for me that I can do repeatedly without feeling burned out. And what content formats at the same time are also appealing to my audience, Like I'm getting engagement from them. So you might find your storytelling content sucks, right? But when you do a fricking viral dance or a cool transition and you put some value in there, it gets a lot of attention. So it's like, okay, cool, well, I'm not going to tell as many stories. I'm just going to focus on this stuff because this is what gets the. Yeah, you know what I mean? So you have to do that for a period of time. Right. You're in the experimentation phase. Once you figure that out, then your strategy becomes like 70 to 80% what works all the time, 20 to 30% experimenting with new things and trying to, you know, pay attention to what's happening in the social media world. What, what style of content is starting to become more popular and then strengthening your skills and experimenting with that so you can continue to build on your content forms. I think ultimately you want to have one or two signature content formats that you can like. It's like your, your content style, your branded content style. Like, when people see that content, they feel that issue, they notice you. If they see it from somebody else, it reminds them of you.
- [37:01]
A
Like, is there anything creatively that you've been experience experimenting with last month? Because for me, who post all the time, it can get stagnant, it can get boring. So, like, what are some things you do to keep yourself.
- [37:14]
B
Yeah.
- [37:15]
A
Creative.
- [37:16]
B
Yeah, I step outside the box. Like, I'm not afraid to, you know, get low views. And I go through these seasons where I have, like, low views consistently. I'm like, am I actually a good creator anymore? I still question myself. I'm human, but under the surface I know, like, this is. You're trying new things, people aren't used to it and, you know, you don't really have anything proven that this style is gonna work or whatever. So, you know, I step outside the box. Like, now I'm experimenting with like the whole podcast style content where you're like, not looking at the camera, but you're given like some inspirational advice or whatever and just seeing how that goes. And it's not getting a whole bunch of views and engagement. But it feels good that I'm trying something new so it doesn't feel redundant. But I am also getting like, good responses from the few people that actually do see it. But I do have my go tos right? Like, when I share real ideas, those always perform really well. When I do, like, my creative genius breakdowns where I break down and analyze other people's viral content and help people understand the nuances that they can apply to their content, that always performs well and just. Yeah. And anytime I'm doing like, just something silly and relating it to like the experience of a content creator that performs well. So I know what content is always going to do well. But I also want to experiment with new formats just to challenge myself as a creator and to see how I can impact my audience or a wider audience as well.
- [38:43]
A
Monty made me pretend to fart in a phone one time for a video idea.
- [38:47]
B
Whatever it takes.
- [38:51]
A
We need to repost it, I need to find it. Which dodo creator friend of mine will be so down to fart. Oh yeah, Caitlyn will.
- [39:02]
B
Hey Caitlyn, you want to fart in the video with me? Yeah, sure.
- [39:06]
A
Have a 2 in 5.
- [39:08]
B
My only question is who farts first? Do you fart first? Do I fart first? Yeah.
- [39:13]
A
Oh man. Little things like that. Okay, to wrap us up. You've given us so much to wrap us up. Let's just do some little rapid fire real quick. What's your favorite like top three tools that help you make content?
- [39:25]
B
Okay, so Cap cut for my video editing or video recording and editing. Many chat for DM automation specifically. I love Stan for just having like a digital storefront presence and for people to be able to just see. Everything that I have to offer is organized in one place and I can also keep track. I collect a lot of leads through Stan. Like all my digital, digital like lead magnets. I make them, I upload it to Stan and I have thousands of email list subscribers because of that. So like those are just three. But then there's other tools that I use intermittently just for like specific things for. I don't know if people know about Remini. Remini is like good for like taking blurry photos and like fixing the pixelization and making it like a well produced photo. Yeah, it's. It's crazy. Remini R E M I N I and there's like AI dabbling with AI a little bit. There's a platform called Everybody knows about ChatGPT. There's a new one that I'm experimenting with called Poppy is really good. I'm probably going to be doing some coaching on that and probably create some type of like program to help people produce some very powerful viral level type content for their personal brand. So yeah, just a handful, A handful that I'm using like all the time. And then there's like a few that I just use for use cases. Like specific use cases.
- [40:55]
A
Okay, okay. I like that. What's something about being a creator that nobody prepared you for?
- [41:03]
B
Wow. That nobody prepared me for. I think just the unlimited opportunities. Right. Like when there's no limit to what you can create. Right. So it's like I wasn't prepared for that and I specifically for like Instagram and just the social media or like just all the changes. Every day, every week there's something new that you have to learn. Like nobody prepared me to not Ever get comfortable? Like, I'm never comfortable. Never comfortable.
- [41:41]
A
And then you think you're like, oh, I'm, I'm good now. I figured it out. It's like, oh, hey, we changed something on the algorithm or app. It's getting new edits. Yeah, Feel that.
- [41:50]
B
Yeah.
- [41:50]
A
Well, I know people are going to want to be, they're going to be running from this episode to your doors to figure out how they can work with you. So, like, what's one of your favorite offers that they can they work with you? How can they get a hold of you?
- [42:03]
B
Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. People could just follow me and like DM me. You know, I'm getting back into one on one coaching really soon. I kind of took a pause for it, but I'm gonna be jumping back into that. But right now I have a private community. It's called the Creative Genius Club. It's for anybody who's struggling with creativity, coming up with ideas, building a content strategy that works consistently, feeling burned out from not having a well thought out system for content creation, maybe having trouble with accountability. You know what I mean? You're figuring this out on your own and you know, you're just not. You don't have the support that you need to like, stay motivated to stay on task. That's what we do inside the community. We, you know, we do live training every single month. We do creativity labs where we study content in real time together. We share ideas every single week for anybody from pretty much any niche. And, you know, we do mentorship sessions. And if you're a faith, faith driven person, we do faith and fellowship every month as well. So it's a very well rounded community. Real creators. I'm in there, I'm active, I'm doing the live stuff and we record everything, so if you miss it live, you catch the replay. Just a great place to groom yourself as a content creator and get some professional level help without spending crazy amounts of money to get it. Basically. Yeah. So it's called the Creative Genius Club www.creativegenius.club.
- [43:28]
A
And I will also, I will link his. I'll link that in his username. I think it's just Monty Lands right on Instagram. Yeah, yeah, I'll link that for you guys in the show notes, but definitely go give him a follow. He's amazing. He's a great friend. Thank you. I'm so glad that you came on and shared your story with us because you've got a real. Yeah, great.
- [43:47]
B
I appreciate you so much. Thanks for having me and yeah, I'm. Anytime you want to do this again, we'll do a part two in the.
- [43:52]
A
Future or something like that. Part two. And then maybe we do like a master class class podcast or like a workshop.
- [44:00]
B
Live. Workshop together. You know what I'm saying?
- [44:02]
A
We're not far down for. Oh, yeah, we could do this live. We're down for whatever. Send me a DM over on. Call her creator and let us know what you want from me and Monty. I'd love to set something up, but. Thank you so much, friend. I love you so much.
- [44:14]
B
Let's grow. Love you. God bless. Let's get it. Yeah.