← Young and Profiting with Hala Taha
Young and Profiting with Hala Taha
The Social Media Strategies Top Creators Use to Build Loyal Audiences | Marketing | YAPCreator Replay | E2
00:32:26
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- [00:03]
A
Yeah, fam. I have really exciting news. After almost eight years of running this podcast, I finally was nominated for an I heart podcast award, which is like the Grammys of podcasting. I'm heading up against the diary of the CEO acquired, Earn your leisure and all these amazing shows for the best business and finance podcast. If you love young and profiting and you love this show and you want me to win, the best way to help me is to write me a five star review on Apple Podcasts I and also to subscribe to my YouTube channel and engage on our videos. I also was nominated for an Indie Pack Award. It's the first ever independent podcast and creator awards that's also happening in a couple weeks. And I was nominated for the best business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm competing against Iced Coffee Hour and a number of awesome shows. And again, if you want to help me win these awards, please Write me a five star review on Apple Podcasts and follow our YouTube channel and engage on our videos. I appreciate any support if you guys have been to my free webinars. If you learn from the podcasts and you guys know that I never ask you for anything, this is the one time I'm asking you guys to support the show by writing us a review or engaging on our YouTube channel. I hope to take home these wins and thanks again for supporting the show.
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B
Foreign.
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A
We're continuing with the YAP Creator series Replay, and today we're going to talk about something that I truly believe is the foundation of every great brand. Trust and authenticity. In a world where everyone is creating content, the creators who actually win and stand out aren't just the ones with the best cameras or the biggest budgets. They're the ones that their audience genuinely believes in. And building that kind of connection takes intention. So in this episode, I'm breaking down why trust and authenticity matter so much, how to nurture that over time, and sharing some of the best lessons that I've picked up from past YAP guests that can help turn your casual followers into loyal ride or die communities. So yeah, fam, if you're building a brand online, you do not want to skip this one. Building trust online is crucial, especially when you don't interact with your audience face to face. In a digital world, trust transforms casual followers into loyal supporters and eventually customers. But how do you establish that trust from behind a screen? The first step is to get personal. That means being open about meaningful details from your life. Sharing who you are behind the polished brand makes you relatable, approachable and real. Rory Vaden a brand building expert, explained to me why this personal connection is so essential for building trust and why it even made him change his mind about the people on social media who like to post about their every meal.
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C
How do you best build trust? Online, we would say, how do you best build trust offline? If you made a list of the top 10 people you trust in your life, like would trust with your life or with your kids, there's a good chance you know those people intimately. You know where they eat, you know where they live, you know about their families, you know where they went to college, you know where they grew up, you know about their siblings, you know, maybe some of their fears, you know some of their mistakes. You know you know those people intimately. And when I first got on social media, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so stupid. Why is everyone posting pictures of what they ate? And then I realized, oh, because we trust people that we know intimate details about their life. Now, that doesn't mean you have to post pictures of your kids, right? There's a lot of reasons why not to and a lot of fears why not to. AJ and I happen to do it a lot. AJ is my wife and she's also my co founder and the CEO of Brand Builders Group. By the way, we were business partners in our former company that we sold and then we started Brand Builders Group, just the two of us. And she's the CEO and I'm the cmo and we're married, right? So we got two kids. So we post. We happen to share those things occasionally. So we trust people that we know details about their life, right? If I see someone walking down the alley, I've never seen them before. I don't know anything about the person. I don't care what the color of their skin is, if it's dark and it's an alley, and I've never seen the person before. I don't care if it's a man, a woman, or their age. My spidey senses go up. I'm in an alley with a stranger. And that's how it is, right? Who's going to buy from a stranger? Nobody. So they got to know something about you. Who else do we trust in real life? Well, we tend to trust people who we learn from. We trust pastors, we trust lawyers, we trust accountants, we trust doctors, we trust experts, we trust people. We trust teachers, we trust mentors, we trust counselors. We trust people who teach us things. We tend to trust people who entertain us, right? They make us laugh, they make Us inspired. We see them on movies. I mean, think about that. We trust movie stars who we've never met, who, but we see them a lot. Who else do we trust in real life? We tend to trust people who encourage us in our darkest moments. The people who were there when you had your heartbreak, when you didn't get into that school or you didn't get that job, or the relationship fell apart or, you know, you lost money on that deal. The people who were there to encourage us in that moment, those are the people we trust because it's like we've been through the fire, right? I know you, you got my back. So when you roll that forward to online, we have three simple strategies that we, we teach. We call them the three E's for content marketing. First of all, educate, encourage and entertain. We typically say, you know, your feed is, should be more of what you do, and it should educate, encourage or entertain. Because strangers don't care about your cat. The only people who care about your cat typically are going to be once they're intrigued by you and they want to kind of really vet you out. That's where they go, who are you really? Right.
- [06:05]
A
Rory talks about how trust comes from familiarity. People trust those that they feel that they know, whether that's through personal stories, inspiration, or education. His three E's framework, Educate, Encourage and Entertain is a simple yet powerful way to build genuine relationships online. But how can we take this trust building to the next level? Well, some of you are looking at it right now, and that's video. I learned about the trust building power of video from Sean Cannell, an expert on video marketing and the founder of Think Media, which has over 3 million YouTube subscribers. Sean explained why video gives your audience an instant sense of connection and trust, something that other content types struggle to match.
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D
We do business with people we know like and trust. And video is the best trust accelerator. If people read something you've written, they can get to know you a little bit. If they hear your voice on audio, that's great, they can get to know you better. But if they see you, they can get to know you best. And so it's kind of like old school, small town rules. You know, we, we meet someone face to face for coffee. You want to connect with your real estate agent in person, look them in the eye, firm handshake, what are you wearing? You know, every, all those details speak something about you. Well, in video, we are able to now communicate those details. And you know, Google released a report years ago called I believe the 7114 rule which was people need to consume 7 hours of your content over 11 different touch points on 4 different platforms and depending on your ticket price of your offer for there to be trust for them to become a lead or even more so, a customer. And so the power of video is you're giving people a chance to get to know you pre sale, pre sales conversation and get to know your expertise, get to know some of your values and your principles. In fact, this would kind of be like a checklist of the types of buckets of content that you'd want to have. It's why that, yes, you want to establish your authority. So you have videos that, oh, this person knows what they're talking about. You establish something that'll help them. Wow, this person got me results in advance. So their content helped me solve a micro problem compared to the big problem they solve. Dang, I could see they're good for it. They know what they're talking about and they've already helped me for free. But one of the missing pieces is they also maybe hear bits and pieces of your story. This whole idea of we do business with people with shared beliefs and we do business with people with similar values and sometimes we just go so logical and so practical, like, okay, cool, this person can help me with Facebook ads, this person can help me with my taxes. But when you start weaving in bits and pieces of your story, they start saying, oh, wow, this person has family values. Oh, wow, this person is of a particular faith. Wow, this person is even maybe kind of leans this way or that way in their ideology. These things you don't have to put like politics and religion in your content necessarily. However, a lot of times those are polarized people to you as well as away from you. But the people polarized to you will be even better customers and will resonate with you even deeper. So over seven hours of content consumed, 11 different touch points could include a YouTube video, seeing you on Instagram, connecting you within the DMs, landing on your website and watching an explainer video. And four platforms also speaks to the power of being on LinkedIn, seeing a deeper dive, training, listening to you on an audio podcast when you start. This is the whole vision of content marketing is then all of this trust has been built and this familiarity has been built. And so for a lot of listeners, they might have a sales team or somebody eventually jumps on a sales call. You're not dealing with, if you will, cold traffic or even just slightly warm traffic. At that point, you're actually maybe dealing with somebody who's like, listen, I already, like, really know, like, and trust you. I've seen this content. I'm just curious the details of your offer and. And so conversions increase, impact increases, sales increases, and you grow your brand wider and wider in the process.
- [10:08]
A
As Sean highlights, video gives your audience a chance to know you behind written or audio content. With repeated exposure across platforms, your audience builds familiarity and confidence in your brand, setting the stage for deeper engagement. We talked about trust. Now let's move on to authenticity. One of the best ways to appear authentic is to embrace what makes you unique. By incorporating your own interests and quirks, you're bringing more than just a polished image to your brand. You're showing the real person behind it. Kat Norton, aka Ms. Excel, is a perfect example of how authenticity and unique interests can make content stand out. With over 1.1 million followers on Instagram and 2.3 million followers on TikTok, Kat has mastered the art of capturing attention. She told me how combining her distinctive passions for dancing and Microsoft Excel created an unexpected level of engagement from her audience.
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E
So I was really just learning by the seat of my pants. Like, I would read the comments people had and I'm like, okay, what do they like? What do they not like? But also for me, it really came down to authenticity. So I love dancing, I love helping people, and I love Excel. So I was like, what would happen if I put all of that inside of one video? Right, right. And so for me, it was just an authentic expression. It was cool. It was something I had never seen anybody do before in terms of the Excel space especially. But also in a lot of learning spaces, integrating dance, which is more native to the TikTok app, but then layering in the educational piece, and that polarity is what really helped the videos take off. Because if I just posted Excel tip videos, people would've been like, cool, like, I don't use Excel and moved on. But so many people were commenting, cause
- [11:51]
A
they were like, what the.
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E
The heck is this girl doing? She is dancing. She's doing, you know, twosie, slide, left and right function. What is going on here? And that's really what helped it go through the algorithm.
- [12:02]
A
And I want to laser in on something you said. You talked about polarity. So the fact that you combined two things that are really uncommon together, dance and Excel, it gets people talking. It gets people, like, complaining, why are you dancing? Talking about Excel or some people will love it. And it gets people talking, which really drives everything up in the algorithm. Do you have anything else to say about Polarity and how important it is for social media.
- [12:27]
E
I think it's a combination of polarity because obviously you want like a healthy polarity, right? You don't just want to, like, say things to create polarity. It needs to be something that's actually authentic to you. So I think that's like the nuance when it comes to polarity because a lot of people too, when it comes to polarity. It's important to make sure that your mental health is in a great spot to be able to receive what comes with polarity. Right. Because a lot of times when a video goes viral, negative comments are, you know, the majority of the ones in there because it's being shown to people, it's being shared. And that's just the nature of the planet, right? We live on a polarity planet. There's always positive and negative forces. So it comes to, you know, making sure that your nervous system is able to hold the energy of what is going to come through from creating the polarity in that content. So for me, that was my biggest work. I was constantly working, working on myself. Cause easily some people get some negative comments and it'll take them out. They'll be like, I don't, I don't wanna post anymore. People think this. Or you start having certain limiting beliefs that then are adjusting the actions you'll take. So instead of following your intuition, you're following the actions that'll please the most, people or things like that. So it's really important to keep coming back to yourself, come back to that intuition and know that you know the polarity is going to trigger some people. And that's okay. That was a big lesson for me as a former people pleaser. You know, I had to, I had to let that go.
- [13:50]
A
As Kat Norton points out here, combining contrasting elements in a genuine way, what she calls polarity can drive engagement and deepen connections. It's a reminder that showing up authentically may involve quirks or unique passions. Even if they seem unconventional. When people see those real, unfiltered sides of you, they're drawn into the person behind the brand, not just the content. Okay, speaking of drawing audiences, audiences today crave authenticity. They want to connect with somebody who feels real and relatable, not just some polished, perfect version of you. So don't shy away from sharing the ups and the downs. True engagement comes when you share your failures, your setbacks, your lessons in progress. These raw, unpolished moments build authenticity and foster deeper connections with your followers, making them feel like they're part of your growth story At YAP and on my personal profiles, we blend polished visuals with everyday moments. So for example, one day I might put up a photo from a photo shoot that was professionally shot and the next day might be a selfie that I shot myself. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Yeah fam, you just realized your business needs to hire somebody yesterday. How do you find great candidates Fast? Easy use Indeed when it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. Indeed Sponsored Jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With Sponsored Jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you reach the people you actually want faster. And it works. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs posted directly on indeed get 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. What I love about Indeed is knowing that my job post is getting the visibility that it requires. Plus, with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, there's no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.comProfiting, just go to Indeed.comProfiting right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com profiting terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Yap Gang Here's a hard truth I had to learn the hard way. If you're running a business and you don't have a clear picture of your cash flow, you're flying blind. There was a time when I was approving expenses and making decisions without fully knowing what was going out of my account or when. That's a dangerous place to operate from as a business owner. So as we started to scale YAP Media, I needed a change and all of it improved when I started using Intuit QuickBooks Bill Pay. It's a bill management tool inside of QuickBooks that brings all of your bills, vendors and payment details into one organized dashboard so you can track and pay everything in one place. With QuickBooks Bill Pay, you can see what's due, control approvals, and understand how each payment impacts your cash flow. Now I make faster and smarter financial decisions because I actually know my numbers. Start paying bills the smart way, not the hard way. Learn more@quickbooks.com BillPay Again, that's QuickBooks.com BillPay terms apply. Money Movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Incorporated licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Hey, App fam, question for you. When somebody Googles you right now, are you proud of what they see? Or would you say ignore that it's under construction for two years I've been there. At one point, our site didn't reflect the level we were operating at at all. It felt so outdated and every small update required way too much back and forth. That's why I love Framer. Framer lets you design and publish a premium professional website without writing a single line of code. It's fast and you can launch pages in minutes. You're in control, no waiting on developers, and the designs look modern, clean and polished on any device. Serious founders know your website is your first impression, so let's upgrade it together. Learn how you can get more out of your.com from a framer specialist or get started building for free today@framer.com profiting for 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com profiting for 30 percent off framer.com profiting rules and restrictions apply so we've talked about sharing personal details, the power of video, and not being afraid to be our unique and authentic selves, even if that means leaning into being imperfect and unpolished. Another aspect of building trust with your audience and establishing authenticity is consistency. And by consistency, I'm not really talking about posting frequently, which is important. But I'm talking about aligning with your brand, voice and and visual identity across every piece of content. This alignment helps you reinforce your brand message, making it recognizable and trustworthy. This starts with visual identity. Elements like colors, fonts and logos can help you create a cohesive and instantly recognizable look. For example, by choosing a color palette that aligns with your brand's values and personality, you can differentiate yourself and promote instant recognition with your followers. And when it comes to branding, less is more. If you stick with two to three colors max and two fonts max, the more clear and the more memorable you'll be. And I don't think anybody I've ever interviewed is more memorable than the marketing and paid ads King Rudy Moore See if you can tell why
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F
my whole office is red. So we grew a 12,000 square foot office in Tampa. 50 staff. Everyone had to wear red. They got sent home if they didn't come in uniform, which was red. The, you know, whole office was red. The Miami offices are red, the brands all read the cars are red and people even ask me when I'm on stage, yes, my underwear Is red, if you're wondering. So all in on the red.
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A
What has that done for your brand? How do you feel like it's impacted your brand?
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F
I would love to say I came in with this exact plan that wasn't the case. But I think one thing that made me successful is I'm really good at looking and learning and adapting and pivoting and then going all in. So I started my personal brand when really, when Covid hit. I really wanted to grow my personal brand in the business marketing world. I had already done it in the fitness space. I had a million followers there. I sold out events around the world, had a Facebook group, 60,000 members. And I saw the power of it. And so I was like, okay, well, now I'm moving into the business space. I'm going to do the same here. So I brought someone in to run my agency. I went all in with my personal brand, and we did $25 million in three years just selling courses, programs, coaching programs. So we grew super fast. And I'm saying that because I think half of that is because I went all in on the personal brand and the social and the organic and stages and all of that sort of stuff. So it had a massive impact. I don't think I would have grown it to that amount so quickly without the brand. But during that time, we were just getting feedback. People were buying courses, programs. I had this, like, red backdrop. Nothing as extreme as I've got now, but it was kind of similar to this if you're watching on video. And people loved it. They were buying 20k masterminds saying, I don't even know who this guy is. I just see his red ads everywhere. And his branding's on point, and he clearly knows what he's doing. Luckily, touchwood in this industry, I do feel I know what I'm doing. It's not just a facade. Like, half the industry we live in is. And then I was going to events when COVID lockdown ended. And all the friends that I had known for five years were like, dude, I love your branding now, like, how you did this whole red thing. So it just got more and more and more. And I'm a very extreme person, which is sometimes great and sometimes terrible. So I just went all in. I just. All my cars are red. I made all the offices red. I made all the staff wear red. And I played into it, and now it's very recognizable, and I'm well known for it.
- [21:43]
A
I mean, I think the key thing is that you're memorable right there's. So many other influencers out there, and you do have the knowledge to back it up and the credentials to back it up. But the red just makes it memorable and makes you stand out. Whereas other people might have to be seen 10 times to be remembered, maybe just once is all you need to be remembered. Rudy's story perfectly highlights the power of bold, consistent branding and making a lasting impression. His commitment to his signature red theme ensures his brand is instantly recognizable and memorable. Cutting through the noise in a crowded space. In addition to visual identity, a strong brand voice is key for forming meaningful connections with your audience. Your brand should not only represent who you are, but also reflect and mirror the qualities and interests of your audience. And that's because people connect with those who are similar to them. People like people who are like themselves. A strong brand voice means consistent core messages. Choose a few messages that you repeat in different forms over and over again so that your audience remembers what you stand for and how you can transform and improve their lives. For example, I have core messages that I repeat over and over again. I remind my audience that you're never too young or too old to learn something new and that if a gatekeeper tells you no, find another path. These are messages that resonate deeply with them because it reflects their own values of resilience, growth and empowerment. By weaving in these messages into my content consistently, whether it be through interviews, stories or videos, I help my audience know what to expect from me and I reinforce the value proposition that I have for them. Someone else with a super consistent brand is Gary Vaynerchuk, AKA Gary V. He told me that consistent branding requires more than just an effective message. It means knowing exactly who you're targeting with that message. Speaking of niches, let's talk about creating audiences. Because like you just talked about, we can talk about multiple topics. We don't have to be scared about that. We can be a dynamic person on social media. Which means we're gonna be speaking to multiple audiences.
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B
That's right.
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A
And you say we should develop cohorts with teeth. So what do you mean by that?
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B
When I make content, sometimes I'm like, this piece of content that I'm gonna make is gonna hit 45 to 55 year old first time moms on the coasts, more New York, la mentality, then London, then Ohio, then Spain. So if I know that I'm doing that, don't you think that my adjectives and analogies tone intent? Right. So I want everyone who's listening to start thinking about cohorts. Gary, what do you mean? I just do sneaker content? Okay, well, there's a lot of different niches within sneaker content. There's people of high net worth like myself, who can afford bougie fucking, you know, Nike, Air Force One collaborations. There's other people who just like, really like New Balance. Like, there's the Reebok movement that I'm getting into as well. Like, there's a lot going on. Crocs, if you want to expand it a little bit, like, do you know who you're making this video for? Because everyone's going to vanilla. I make content for entrepreneurs. I'm like, okay, knock yourself out. Imagine how much better a piece of content is that, you know, that you're going to make. I'm going to make content for first generation Hispanic entrepreneurs that are 18 to 22, that came from immigrant parents that came from Mexico. I'm going to use analogies. I'm going to make reference to rigaton. I'm going to talk about San Antonio
- [25:16]
A
culture, like, use their slang and however they talk 100%.
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B
It's called relevance, everyone. If you're not relevant to someone, the second I make a long tail barstool joke, every barstool dude is like, fuck yeah. Like, it's not super complicated. And so because everyone gets so boring and vanilla right away, people say to me all the time, they're like, it's a really funny thing that I fuck people up with. Like, because I've been so consistent in growing and all this stuff. But then like, sometimes they'll be like, but Gary, you say the same shit. I'm like, what do you want me to make up stuff I don't believe in? And then they go like, if they stick with me in that convo, they start to realize, ah, I say the same macro 15 things, but the way I say it differently and how and where and what and to whom. That's the game. So cohorts, these are consumer segmentations. In old television talk it was, we're trying to reach the 18 to 35 year old demo. I like to think everyone in here is at a point in their lives where they realize an 18 year old person and a 32 year old person, the same person are very different. So like, but that was television. You didn't have the Internet. Yeah, now that we have the Internet, like everybody who's listening should be posting on Facebook. It's huge. Still, I'm getting 25, 30 year old audience on Facebook now. They're on there like once in a blue moon compared to whatever. But like, you should be relevant to Facebook audience, you should be relevant to TikTok audience. Snapchat's culture, slightly different than TikTok's and TikTok. It's all different rooms out there and you want to be in every room.
- [26:45]
A
There you go, folks. As Gary puts it so well, you have to be in every room. To have an effective brand message today, you've got to be relevant. You need to know your audience and every cohort and segment within that audience. But where do you start? How do you identify the audiences that your brand will resonate with most? Well, sometimes it's as simple as focusing on one very important person. A powerful strategy for building a loyal community is creating content with a single person in mind. Your ideal audience member, business strategist Jasmine Starr calls this approach the foundation of building your kingdom online. By focusing on one person, you can transform your content from simple broadcasts into genuine personal connections. Here's Jasmine Starr explaining how focusing on one person and engaging authentically helps to build a thriving, loyal community around your brand.
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G
You know, if you say jasmine, I'm not getting direct messages.
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A
Great.
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G
Go to accounts where you can follow stories and if you have like a, they can. If you can vote on something, vote on something. And if you can respond to a story, respond to a story. We want to create a little tiny kingdom that is your business. And your kingdom is up on a hill. And then there's the villagers down below. How do people know that your kingdom is on the hill? You have to go down into the village, tell everybody, hey, there's a kingdom up there. And how you do that is by giving comments, liking photos, sending DMs so people become aware. So we go back to niching down. This makes creating content so much easier. If you feel frustrated, if you feel overwhelmed, if you feel like creating content is taking so much time, let's narrow it down to not just a niche. I'm actually going to upload this. I'm going to say create content for one person who is your dream customer. What do they want? What do they need? What solutions are they looking for? And when you just think about that one person and you create content and you speak to that one person, I know it's natural for you to think, well, if I create content for one person, well then nobody else is going to buy. It's actually quite the opposite. Studies have shown. And business owners will tell you that when you speak to the 34 year old farmer who wears flannel and likes hard hats and listens to country music and drinks. Bud wiser like you create content for that person, it's very different than creating content for the 56 year old Manhattan woman with four children who vacations in the Hamptons. When you create content for those two separate people, it will resonate differently. So the big question is, do you know who your dream customer is? Because when you build that out, your content becomes entirely different. And then you get to Looping back to Catherine's question. Give engagement to who you think your dream customers are. That is how you scale.
- [29:17]
A
As Jasmine shared, when you speak to one person, you make every follower feel like they're part of something personal and valuable. This approach allows you to move beyond surface level engagement and build deep connections that resonate on a community level. To add even more value, think about ways to create touch points with your audience that go beyond the usual interactions. In the last section of this episode we talked about creating content that resonates with a specific audience. Now let's take it a step further. Monetizing those relationships authentically. This isn't about selling for the sake of selling. It's about listening to your audience, understanding their needs, and creating products or services that genuinely serve them. This is where the creator economy has totally changed the game. As Harley Finkelstein, the president of Shopify, told me, creator entrepreneurs have a unique advantage. They're not starting with a product and then searching for customers. Instead, they're building engaged audiences first and then developing products that align directly with their community's interests. Harley shared some great insights on how brands, both big and small, are leveraging personalization to connect with their audiences. Even major companies like Haynes and Oreo are creating customized products and engaging more directly with their consumers. But this approach isn't just for big brands. Creators have a unique opportunity to build close authentic relationships with their followers and offer products that reflect those connections. Here's Harley explaining how this shift towards creator driven businesses is creating a new wave of entrepreneurship.
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H
So actually I think this idea of the creator economy, it's just the economy except that there's this, this really cool advantage which is that you have a built in audience for your products. A lot of companies either never sold direct to consumer. If you think about the CPGs, for example, Heinz ketchup has a store on Shopify. Heinz ketchup never sold direct to consumer. Heinz would sell through a grocery store but. But there's some people that really care about like they're obsessed with ketchup, they love ketchup and they want to buy direct from Heinz called Heinz at Home. And for the first time ever, those big brands are actually have a direct relationship, whether it's through social media. And if you remember years ago, the Wendy's account had a real personality. And a lot of these social media accounts of big brands actually have personalities to the extent that their consumers want to interact with them. And so you have a couple things happening with the big companies. One is the big companies are beginning to act a lot more entrepreneurial. They want to have a direct relation to consumer, but also they're experimenting. They're trying new things. A couple years ago, one of the cool things I thought that Oreo did, which is owned by Mondelez, is as a Christmas gift or holiday gift, you can personalize Oreos. So there's someone in your life that loves Oreos. You can make Harley's Oreos Happy holiday, something like that. That is really interesting. So each of those things on their own are kind of interesting. When you combine those things, you see big companies acting very entrepreneurial. You see creators just on the creator side. Think about these artists, like these musicians, people like, you know, Drew House with Justin Bieber's brand that he built, or ovo what Drake has built. You see these traditional. You know, what would be a traditional musician completely expand their scope of what they're actually building and selling and creating. When I used to go to a concert when I was a kid, I would go to the merch table. It was usually some sort of, like, screen print on some basic T shirts, like Fruit of the Loom T shirt. And it said, like, I don't know, the Rolling Stones on the back was a bunch of tour. Tour dates. Well, now you go to these concerts, and you go to, like, a Drake concert, and they're selling, like, Canada Goose OVO collab jackets, or you go to, you know, a Pharrell concert, and you see some of the crazy stuff he's selling, like cosmetics at the concert that he. That he's created himself. So big companies are actually entrepreneurial. Artists are now actually expanding from just being creators around music and art and film to actually creating product. And then, of course, you have just more people generally becoming entrepreneurs and more people saying, I make amazing chicken soup, and now I'm gonna sell that chicken soup to the world. And I think when you combine all those things, you see people that traditionally had not entered entrepreneurship doing so, and they're scaling at a pace that just has never been seen before. And that's why. That's a long answer to a very short question. But that's why I think there's an entrepreneurial renaissance happening.
- [33:29]
A
Like Harley said, brands that connect with their audience on a personal level can build something much more impactful than just a business transaction. By focusing on what their community truly values, creators can launch products that feel like a natural extension of their brand, fostering loyalty and long term engagement. And that's a wrap for episode two of the YAP Creator series Replay. Today we explored why trust and authenticity are critical to building a loyal audience and creating content that connects on a deeper level. Remember, audiences resonate most with the real you, not the polished, perfected facade of you. It's about embracing your quirks, sharing your journey and letting your personality shine through. Thanks for tuning in and I can't wait to connect with you all again for episode three where we'll continue to unlock the secrets of content creation. This is your host Pahla Taha AKA the podcast Princess signing off.
- [34:23]
B
Sam.