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Social Media Decoded
From Momager to Media Mogul: How Kia J. Brooks Turned 42 Million Views into Digital Gold
00:27:15
In this powerhouse episode of Social Media Decoded, host Michelle Thames sits down with viral sensation and powerhouse momager Kia J. Brooks—the brilliant strategist behind daughter Flau’jae Johnson’s explosive growth in both sports and entertainment.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:56]
Kia J. Brooks
Podcast you need to follow into the bonus programs it gives you. In your professional view, you can see all the things that you need to do to get bonuses or to make your algorithm go crazy or to make people be more engaged. Comment after a post, comment after someone say something nice to you. Don't leave it like people just coming. You have to engage with your fans. I'm not even going to say fans. Your supporters, your followers, whatever they see in it, because it's a community for whatever you are doing.
- [01:32]
Michelle Thames
Hey hey. Welcome to the Social Media Decoded Podcast, the Go to podcast for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to grow their brand, increase visibility, and make more money without the overwhelm. I'm your host, Michelle Thames, marketing strategist, business coach, and the person who's here to give you the real no fluff strategies to help you succeed online. Each week I bring you expert insights, actionable tips, and real talk about what's actually working in social media and digital marketing. Whether you're just starting or scaling the six figures, you're in the right place. So grab your coffee or Matcha if you're like me. And let's dive into today's episode. We are taking it to a whole new level because my guest today has done something absolutely insane in the world of digital content. She reached 42 million views on Facebook in one month. Let that sink in real quick because you know how it is with these algorithms and all the things. And not only did she crack the viral code, she monetized it. Okay, so if you ever wondered how to turn your social media views into actual income, how to build an empire while managing a household because hello we're moms, we're working. We're doing all the things and how to stay ahead in the ever changing digital space to. Today's episode is for you. So you already know the drill. Get your pens and notepads ready, because gems are about to be dropped. I am beyond excited to introduce you to my guest, Kia J. Brooks, AKA the definition of a momager turned media mogul. She's the powerhouse behind her daughter, Flaujer. If y' all don't know who Flauj is, Google her. Flauje Johnson and her success in music and basketball. A content creator, a brand strategist, and a businesswoman making serious moves in today's digital world. Kia, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to chat with you today.
- [03:28]
Kia J. Brooks
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's a blessing to even be, you know, reached in internally. You reaching out to me. Like, we getting calls every day. We getting calls about me speaking on panels and different things like that. That was never my intentions. So when your intentions are pure, most likely things come to you. Blessings come to you because you're trying to give or pour into someone else. And my someone else happens to be my own children.
- [03:56]
Michelle Thames
Yes. And you're doing amazing. Amazing. Super appreciative. So let's get right into it. Okay. The 42 million views in one month, that's wild. Kia, what was the moment that you realized, wait a minute, this blowing up?
- [04:10]
Kia J. Brooks
Well, what happened was the video actually was a video that I didn't even think would go viral. I wanted to put it out there, given that, you know, my daughter's just been doing a lot of amazing things out there that I feel like if I don't tell the story, who is? And that's where I go to talk about more of campaigning for your children. So with me just campaigning for my daughter, putting up a post about her giving away some bags to her team, a generosity moment where my baby called me and she was like, mom, I want to do something for my sisters for Valentine's Day. I said, your sisters? Because, you know, Flauje's my only biological daughter. I have all boys. And she was like, yes, my team. I was like, that is so sweet. She was like, yeah, listen, we be at it in the gym, we be at it at practice. We always together. So I just want them to let them know, no matter what we going through, you, my sister and I love you. You know what I mean? So I thought that was just one of the most beautiful moments of her just being selfless. And always being selfless, that's just flage, really. But for her to want to go buy all of my designer bag was insane. Now the video start to go viral. Maybe the first moment it hit, you can kind of see it because it's like a lot of notifications, like, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. And so I always get a lot of notifications because right now I'm trying to get my Snapchat going. I'm trying to get my YouTube going. I'm faithful on Facebook. I'm faithful on Instagram. Know my piece right there. Those who start paying me first. So those were what I was used to. But then my friends was like, kia, you need to be on TikTok. And so I'm like, what? It was like, yes.
- [05:51]
Michelle Thames
I was like, that's for kids.
- [05:52]
Kia J. Brooks
It was like, no, Kia, Everybody is on TikTok. You have a story to tell on TikTok. So it started to go viral. I put that video on every platform because right now that's how you build. And I put that video on all my platforms, and it went viral on Facebook because you have different audiences. And the audiences that gravitated was people who are just wanting to do better, wanting to love on somebody. And if they were put in that position, like, just seeing the comments, like, I can't wait till I can bless my friends. I can't wait till I can give back to my community. You know what I mean? Or people who I love. So that's when I knew it went viral. Because you start seeing the notifications right away. Cause it's like a consistent bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
- [06:38]
Michelle Thames
Man, that's amazing. And I know going viral is one thing. Okay. But a lot of people really don't know how to capitalize on that. So let's talk about how you turn that engagement into actual revenue. Because I see so many people on Facebook, they're trying to go get monetized. But how were you able to turn that into actual revenue?
- [06:59]
Kia J. Brooks
So once you're posting on your social media platforms consistently, the platform see, see that? They see the numbers, they see the consistency. So they start trying to give you different bonus programs. So you need to. You need to follow into the bonus programs. It gives you, in your professional view, you can see all the things that you need to do to get bonuses or to make your algorithm go crazy or to make people be more engaged. Comment after a post, comment after someone say something nice to you, don't leave it. Like people just comment. You have to engage with your fans. I'M not even going to say fans, your supporters, your followers, whatever they see in it because it's a community for whatever you are doing. I'm a mom major. You know how many momagers out there that have talented kids that want to know how to get in this space that I'm in and want to follow whatever I've done to get there? It's simple. Everybody has a gift. Everybody has some type of quality craft. It is people that love to follow that. You just have to find a community and post consistently. And when I say by consistently, I'm saying at least three times a day. A morning inspiration. Post time they get up, they can see it middle of the day, more of, okay, they trying to get through today. Just more of an inspiration of we going to get through this today. You know what I'm saying? Just kind of like a pat on the back. We got this. You know what I mean? And then maybe in the evening something funny, you know, that will last through the night because people just laughing, you know. So I started off like that, and from there on, I've been posting even more because I noticed that you don't have to have a long video. You can do a clip of 15 seconds that go viral. So if whatever video you have is that funny or that engaging, just cut it up. So then you have three pieces of content to post on that same issue. And that's where you see part one, part two, part three. People are getting smart. They knowing I can make $1,000 off this video, I can come back because they want to know what happened. So you cut it right when people want to know what happened, you got to use your brain. And if you're a hustler, it will calm so fast until you'll be like, dang, I could have been doing this all along. To be honest, when you sitting behind that desk at a regular 9 to 5, you are hustling for somebody else. I have come to the conclusion that I'm great at whatever I touch. So why not hustle for me and mine versus someone else Now, I ain't telling you how to go quit your job. I'm telling y' all to build a community first. And once you build that community part time, you can eventually go full time with content creator Kia.
- [09:41]
Michelle Thames
You dropping some gems today. I hope y' all listening. I hope you got your notepads and your pants, because, you know, I bring on the experts. I mean, and shout out to the momagers, because I am definitely a momager as well. Shout out to all the moms who are going to help build their kids brands. It's important. Okay, and let's talk about this for a minute. This the business behind the brand. Because I don't know if a lot of people know, right. Success doesn't happen overnight. Right. But I know that your journey personally has been a lot of hard work, strategy, like you just told us right there, and intention. So how did you first get into the digital space and start building your brand? I know that your family has a YouTube. I know that your daughter was on a very popular show back in the day. So how did you get started building this digital space?
- [10:27]
Kia J. Brooks
Well, after Flaujer got a little bigger, some. Some on my team was like, kia, people are reaching out for you. It makes no sense for you to go back and build your brand or your fan base after the fact. You need to build it while you're consistent consistently building Flage's brand. Because my focus has always been my kids. Like, I'm gonna tell you, I look a total mess, but long as they look good, I'm just that mom. Like, I don't care. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna walk out the door, unclean door, you know, but me going out and buying thousand dollar bags, that's never just been me. I got all my girlfriends, I'm the least bougiest one. But I know how to piece myself together to make myself look good and make myself look rich. It's not what you put on, it's who put it on. You know what I mean? So I always felt like it's all about who you are and what you bring to the table. So after that, and I noticed that people really were like, in love with me. Like people running up to me with gifts and we love you. I noticed that I had a community of supporters that I could, you know, give back to in some kind of way through my platforms that I could actually, you know, give them something to inspire them to be better or to try to pour into them what they see me pouring into my kid and my brand. So once I figured that out, I was like, okay, I use Kris Jenner as a case study. And I feel like everybody should find their case study. So Kris Jenner, they can say what they want, you know, about her, She's a hustler. She turned beautiful girls into billionaires. They didn't have a talent. And I'm not trying to be funny, athletic. They weren't athletic. They were just really beautiful girls. But she used everything that she knew Put it together and built a brand to where these people are going to be set up from generations to generations because of her just using her God given talents and say, okay, I'm going to put my kids out here and I'm a push find them and I'm gonna give them the resources to be successful and I'm gonna go out here and communicate with people and network and be savvy about what I'm doing. And guess what? Everybody fake it till they make it. I'm telling you right now, people pretend like they had it all along. They have not had it all along, baby. They had to be where you are today. Do not let them fool you. I remember having to ask people, hey, is there any way you can get Flajay to open up for mindless behavior? Who do I need to talk to? Who's the manager for, for the OMG girls. I'm like hustling like every time I knew a show was coming. I'm getting with producers, I'm getting with people who are throwing parties. Like, whatever I had to do to put my baby out there, I was willing to do. So. That's how you get Kia J. Brooks, the momager, the mompreneur, the content creator now with the K, like Brandon is Brandon. Hashtags are an amazing way to get yourself out there too. You find yourself a hashtag, people can hashtag and go to everything that you've done. So don't be afraid to use hashtags. They will get people to follow you faster than your video will reach them. People love hashtags. Right now, the hashtag is March Madness NCA tournament, baby. Women's basketball. That's the hashtag that will get every video going right now because it is a following for these women in basketball.
- [13:51]
Michelle Thames
Mm. Girl, you are dropping so many gems. This is so good. And I love how you said that you were hustling. A lot of people think, you know, just things come easy. No, you have to be out here working, making things happen, being in the right rooms at the right time. Even me getting you on this podcast. I was just on Facebook and I said, you know what? I'mma comment and see what she says. And you said, yes. And so anything can happen, y' all, with social media. And so this is why I love social media so much. This is why I built this podcast. Because if you're loving this podcast, make sure you tag me on Instagram at Michelle L. Thanes and let me know what you loved about this episode. Okay, now let's talk about Flaujay. Now, I don't know if you all know, but you need to Google flaue. She's an amazing, multi passionate woman, okay? She's out here making waves in both music and sports. And as her manager, how do you balance nurturing her brand while also building your own brand at the same time?
- [14:47]
Kia J. Brooks
So you put the main thing first, okay? You put what? Pay the bills first. And for that, and that's anything you do, you have to cradle and nurture what is in front of you that God has blessed you with. And that's what I feel like a lot of people fail to realize. Everybody on this earth was born with a talent. Whether you nurture it or not is on you. People always say, I don't have nobody. I don't have no help. I don't have this girl. Your mail ticket is sitting back there on the game, on the game. And he run faster than any of the kids in the neighborhood. But he's on the game. Now, don't get me wrong, the game is making money. Now if your kid is passionate about a game, you give them the resources and turn it into a business to where they're making money. Passive income. They could be sleeping and making money because you have gotten YouTube and everything else for them to stream and continue to make money. So for building Flage's brand and my brand at the same time, it hasn't been difficult because Flage's brand caters to a lot of children. She inspires a lot of little girls to be a Flage. So while she's inspiring other little girls, moms are inspired to help their little girls. So it's naturally a ripple effect of how can I follow Kia to see what she did to get Flagee to be as successful as she is? How? How does she do it? Where does she step? Does she has an ebook? Does she have this? Let me follow her. It's so simple. And so for us, me just being out there, me hustling, bustling them, seeing me working with Flage, Flage's everywhere. And I'm everywhere because flauge's everywhere. Little girl told me she was going to take me around the world and I be darn. She done took me around the world literally for free. So that's the process right now for us. I don't have to do too much now for me right now, I did just secure a brand manager to help me really build my brand out, to help me really get a professional website to get people to be because so many people are Reaching out about consults one on ones things I can really do, you know, on my downtime to help others. And if you ain't giving back, ain't no way you gonna receive your blessings. Your hand got to be open. And I don't mean flat, because you don't want them vultures and snakes to come in. It got to be like this, you know what I mean? To where people can give you and you still can give out. But if your hand close, you can't even receive your blessings because you not giving back to nobody else to get your blessings. So when you reached out, that was me blessing you to say, hey, I want to pour back into her and what she's doing. She wasn't afraid. She was fearless. She got out there and she said, hey, can you do my podcast? I would love to interview you. And I said, you know what? I like her energy. Yes.
- [17:36]
Michelle Thames
Thank you. Thank you so much. And look, y' all, look, if you don't ask, you don't get. Right?
- [17:41]
Kia J. Brooks
You ask yourself, grandma said a closed mouth don't get fed.
- [17:44]
Michelle Thames
Exactly, exactly. And I love how you are, like you said, building your website because yes, honey, the momagers and the people do want to know how you are doing this and I will sign up. Okay, I am definitely following you. Everything you've been doing, it's amazing. I think you are the blueprint of, you know, managing someone who is multi passion. I'm multi passion. I have this podcast. We have digital marketing agency, me and my husband. I've been online the last 15 years. So it's a process. Right. And so I love to see other multi passionate people. And flaujay, she's the coldest rapper out here. Okay. Coldest rapper out here. Now let's talk about these partnerships because you just said that you are, you know, getting more partnerships. So how do you decide which partnership deals to take and should creators, what should they look for when they're monetizing their platforms?
- [18:34]
Kia J. Brooks
So honestly, you gotta get the brands that's authentic to who you are. It's simple. When you just out here accepting brands, it kind of can deter your brand. It can depreciate the value of your brand. And if you're building, that's nothing you don't want to do. So for me and my team, we really just partner with things that really are things authentic to flage things. She actually drank clothes, she actually wear lip gloss, she actually put on shoes, she actually wear whatever it has to make sense. We've gotten in some partnerships where we thought we would like, but it wasn't authentic because she wasn't really using the product. So every now and again, you'll get caught with something you're not supposed to have because you authentically don't drink it. You know what I mean? Or you don't like it. So when we got with Powerade, that was one of the best situations for us. I think we have four deals on the table for a drink at the time in that category. So I had options. But for me, the Powerade was the better situation because flaujay went to a school sponsored by Powerade. And if you don't know if you're an nil athlete, if the school does not sponsor the drink, it prevents you from being able to partner and do different things on campus. So now flaujee can be on the advertising at the school because she's actually a Powerade ambassador. So it doesn't like. It is. It just makes more sense. And she actually drinks it. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like she doesn't drink it. She drinks it. The school has them with the towels on their neck. Like, if I was with Gatorade, it wouldn't make sense at this time because all colleges is sponsored by Powerade. So dealing with brands, even with. What did we just do? Oreos. She eats Oreos. Samsung. She likes Samsung's product Invisalign. She really needed Invisalign. I put her embraces in sacrifice and she didn't wear a retainer. So now her teeth are shifting a little bit and she can feel it. What else deal did we just get? Samsung. Powerade. I'm thinking of the new ones. Experience Flage is all about making sure her credit is right, making sure her bank account is right. She don't spend a lot of money. She's all about investing and making sure that her family for generations and generations is set up. Even with the Mass Mutual experian does more of getting your credit right, staying there so you're able to do the things you want to do. Mass Mutual is about making sure she's set up after basketball, making sure when the balls start bouncing, she can take care of her family. So all the brands that we partner with this year are really authentic to her brand. And that's what people need to make sure when they stepping into these brand partnerships that it's authentic to what they actually love or represent.
- [21:23]
Michelle Thames
Ooh. I 100% agree with everything that you said. Congratulations to you and flaugee. Those are some amazing partnerships. I Love the Oreo one. I saw that. When I saw the power rating, I was like, oh, that is amazing. Amazing. So this has been a great episode. But before we wrap things up, I want to talk about family. Okay. You are raising an amazing family. I love your sons. They are so adorable. Like, each time you post them, just like, they're just getting so big. But managing all of this right, what advice do you have for other entrepreneurs who may be listening, especially parents who are trying to build their brand while balancing real life?
- [22:02]
Kia J. Brooks
For me, I just. Just stay real. I stay authentic. I be myself. I've noticed that a lot of people try to conform, to be the next person. If you be yourself, you will reach more people because it'll make people think like, dang, I like her personality. I like how she go about family, work, her husband. I love how she tends to everybody and still finds a way to be a working mom. A working successful moment. I think the. I did not know. I use authenticity a lot because people have to realize being yourself is what's going to make you the most money. That's what's going to make you the most success. Because if you're chasing somebody else and what they're doing, it's not. It's not going to do much for your value because that's not really you. And eventually the mask that you've been wearing for the last six months is going to come off and people are going to see that that is not your true self. And even though you're on the Internet and you're doing these content reels and stuff, people can tell if you're being fake or not. Now some of them are you're acting because you wanted people to resonate with what you're doing or. And that's another thing about reels, making sure that people actually are having the same situation going on with these reels. Like, dang, I saw one the other day when, where they were arguing in the house, her and her husband, about the air. How many of us go through it in the house with our husbands about air? He hot, I'm cold. And it was so funny because I was like, oh my God, this is me and my husband. But it was really real, so it resonated with my life. Those alone will make your content creation venture even more easier to pursue because you're really making people fall in love with you because they're resonating with what you're doing. I have the same life. My husband do the same thing. My kids driving me crazy. I'm Running at the school. They got me at football practice. They got flaws. They got me here. Like, it's real. It's real and it's raw and real and raw. Gonna get you further than anything else.
- [24:07]
Michelle Thames
And I wanna know, Kia, what's next for you? Any big moves that we should keep an eye on?
- [24:12]
Kia J. Brooks
Well, we have a few ventures, a TV show in the works for a family, the Brooks bunch. We're still negotiating, so that's going to be big for our family. My publicist and a lot of people I work with made me turn down a lot of things that I could have been a part of because they see that my value is a little different than others. You know what I mean? And some things are a little bit, you know. And I mean, not in my league, because I'm not going to say not in my league, but they're not in my league. And I'm not saying that in a way, but I don't want to devalue my brand to be a part of something that I'm already ahead of or, you know, skyrocketing ahead of. So I just want to grab everybody, not only the culture. I want white supporters. I want Mexican. I want Asian. I want every kind of support. I want every mom. I want every dadager. Because momagers are not the only one out here work. It's a lot of dads that reach out to me secretly because they feel like I only support moms. And I'm like, no, I support. So now I have to find a way to say, hey, if you a parent managing your kid, I don't care if you're a mom, dad, or jerk. We can get on a call like, I'm a hustler. I can give you the gems you need to get started. I can tell you how to roll this thing out. I can go look at your page and tell you exactly what you need to be posting to get started. I can look at your family, your career, and whatever you got going on, because I really can strategize some things and put it together so that your rollout is successful for me. God has really, truly been blessing my family here. We made it to the sweet 16, as you can see, baby, and we going in that final fourth. So catch me in Tampa, baby. Yes.
- [25:56]
Michelle Thames
Congratulations. We're going to be watching. And Kia, this has been mind blowing. I know a lot of people have been taking notes, rethinking their whole content strategy with this 42 million. And I see you posted something else that went viral too. But before we go. Tell us where people can follow you, tap into your journey and support your project.
- [26:15]
Kia J. Brooks
You can follow me on all my social media. That's Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube @kia J Brooks K I A J for Jones and Brooks. Also, if there's any, you know, times you just want to DM me, I'm okay. I look through my DMs. If I don't answer, it's just because I'm busy. But most of the time I do respond. Respond. I'm not one of them ones that forget where they came from. I'm really, really out here trying to make a difference.
- [26:43]
Michelle Thames
No. And you absolutely do because you've talked to me in the DMs before. So thank you for that, y' all. If you love this episode, please do me a favor. Screenshot this episode. Tag Kia J. Brooks and Michelle L. Thanes on Instagram and let us know your biggest takeaway. And if you're serious about turning your content into cash, hit that subscribe button because we have more to game changing episodes coming your way. Until next time, everybody show up, get seen and get paid. I will talk to y' all in the next one.
- [27:14]
Kia J. Brooks
Peace.
- [27:17]
Michelle Thames
All right, that's a wrap on today's episode. I hope you got some valuable insights and real strategies you can apply to your business right now. If you enjoyed this episode, I love for you to do two quick things. First, take a screen screenshot, share it on Instagram and tag me Michelle L. Thanes so we can keep the conversation going. Second, if you found value in this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your support helps this show reach more entrepreneurs just like you. Oh, and if you want to support the show and fuel my Matcha obsession, you can always buy me a coffee at the link in the show notes. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time. Keep showing up, keep growing and I'll talk to y' all in the next one.
- [28:06]
Kia J. Brooks
Peace.
- [28:13]
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