August 15, 2025 • 22 mins
🎙️ Welcome back to The Socialize Strategy — the podcast where we talk social media, creator life, and all the behind-the-scenes bits most people don’t tell you.
Before we get into today’s strategy, it’s time for my “unsponsored by” picks — aka products I genuinely use and love without a penny in my pocket from the brand. This week’s lineup includes:
- Oura Ring — why I love it, how it tracks my sleep and steps, and the surprising brand deal offer that made me say, “No thanks.”
- Purely Elizabeth Granola — my forever favorite snack and the wild small-world story about how I used to share an office floor with Elizabeth herself.
Then we dive into today’s topic: Why you should post like social media is your diary.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- What “posting like it’s your diary” really means (spoiler: it’s not writing Dear Diary).
- Why unplanned, authentic posts often outperform your polished content.
- How to capture raw, relatable moments that build loyalty and connection.
- The key engagement metrics that actually help content go viral.
- How personal storytelling can make your audience feel like they know you — and why that’s powerful.
- A moving reminder that even a small audience can have a big impact.
Grab your coffee, your camera, and maybe some granola, and let’s get into it.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Helen (00:00):
Welcome to The Socialize Strategy. Happy Friday, and
today we are going to talk abouta specific social media
strategy. But before I do that,I want to go over my unsponsored
by items for this week. I alwayslike to make sure to include in
those things that I usefrequently, so that this is
really my true review. It'ssomething that I'm very close to
(00:21):
in my life.
And my first one is my OuraRing. It's on the charger right
now charging up. And you cansee, well, you can't really see.
But anyway, there's a littlelight here that indicates it's
charging. And when this lightturns green, then it indicates
that it's completed.
So I'm going to leave it on thecharger. But I wear it on this
finger. And the reason I decidedto get one of these, it's not
(00:44):
because I'm going to track everyfootstep I make in a day. I
don't even need to track mysleep because I sleep really
well, although I am alwayscurious about my sleep stats and
I do tend to look at that a lot.I just like to know how long I'm
sleeping, how settled I am, whatmy heart rate is.
I enjoy the sleep facts. But Idon't wear an Apple Watch and
(01:05):
I've never been a person thathas embraced a Fitbit or
anything like that. So this isreally something that I dove in
with the purpose being, let mesee how well I sleep. Let me
have some type of tracking of myfootsteps. Because even though I
know our phones track ourfootsteps, it's not the same.
Because often I put my phonedown and I go somewhere and I do
things. So because it's not withme all the time. If I'm wearing
(01:28):
a ring on my finger, like myOura Ring, it's with me all the
time. There it is. It's comingwith me when whenever I go
somewhere.
So that's why I like it becauseI don't really have to think
about it. It's just a part of myjewelry and off I go. And I
recently posted a video where Imentioned Oura Ring in the
caption. I was saying that I'dbeen sitting all day and my Oura
Ring alerted me it's time to getup. So when I posted that, I
(01:51):
wrote in the caption, notsponsored by Oura Ring quote
yet.
And of course they reached outto me. But I have to laugh
because these brands reach out.And just in case you think it's
like a money machine, thiscompany, I'm going to be
completely honest, I'm going seeif I can open the email now and
either read it or at least tellyou what it was. Okay, it's
(02:13):
share your wellness journey withthe Oura Ring Creator
Opportunity. And it goes on andon.
What about we're excited, yourcontent caught our eye, we
discovered your page, Love yourpassion for wellness. Yada yada
yada. As an Aura creator, whatyou'll enjoy. And this is where
this is the benefits to me.Early access to Ring models.
(02:33):
What does that mean? They'regonna send me something? Monthly
swag and gear drops. Are theysending me this for free? I
don't know.
Your own creator code. K.Thanks. I have to, like, share
it to earn. Featured on channelsof wellness.
Oh, yes. They wanna use mycontent in their ads. Not paying
me. Competitive compensationbased on engagement and sales.
(02:54):
Right there is a red flag.
If you are someone who iswanting to do brand collabs, and
right away it's about based onengagement and sales. When you
post sponsored content, it isautomatic that you are not going
to get the same engagement.Sponsored posts do not get the
same engagement. That's whyadvertisers and brands pay for
(03:18):
media buys. Because when abrand, sorry, when a creator is
doing a sponsored post and itsays sponsored right away, the
person knows this is an ad andthey're likely going to scroll.
So the automatically, theengagement is going to go down.
So it's not fair to a creatorwho is spending the time making
a video, posting it, and theyhave to do the rule, post it as
(03:40):
if it's sponsored. Automaticallyyou're not going to get the
engagement. And they're puttingthat into their their ask so
that you don't you're not gonnamake money. Clearly, it says,
like, you're not gonna it'sgonna your compensation is gonna
be based on how many views yourcontent gets, and automatically,
your your content is not gonnaget that many views because you
have to disclose that it'ssponsored.
You see what I'm saying? This islike a very weird I'm being
(04:02):
straight honest with you rightnow. It's a very weird, industry
where creators are somewhattaking advantage of now. Like I
could make a great piece ofcontent. It's a great ad.
But because it says sponsored,it doesn't get pushed out, so it
doesn't get as many views. So Iget paid very little. And then
they're allowed to use it, itlooks like, in their, wellness
(04:26):
campaigns. But you know what?That would have to be a payment
if they're going to use it.
So that's where I think creatorsdon't necessarily know they have
to pay attention to the fineprint when they get offered. Oh,
this sounds so exciting. I'mgoing to be representing the
Oura Ring. Like, I got excitedfor half a second. Even knowing
what I know, I still got excitedfor half a second.
It also says, here we go, ta tada da. But we ask, create 10
(04:49):
pieces of content per monthshowcasing how Oura fits into
your wellness routine. 10 videosper month? That seems insane to
me. I'm sorry.
And then at the end, this is apaid performance based
partnership with potential togrow into a long term
collaboration. So that is myhonest disclosure of what it's
(05:17):
like to have a brand offer andinitially potentially get
excited about it. And then findout, I don't know if this really
benefits me so much. Becausewhat my takeaway is that they're
only going to pay if my organiccontent that is labeled
sponsorship does well. Likelyit's not.
And then they're going to beable to use my content on their
(05:39):
own paid ads. So then they'regoing to be able to put money
behind it and push my ad out topeople. That maybe my ad's going
to be good if there's moneybehind it. Oh my God. This is
getting me more mad the more Italk about it.
So I'm not mad at Aura. I'm madat the process of brands in
general. Because Aura, I'm surethis is just like what a lot of
(05:59):
brands do. I'm sure it's thesame thing. So I think it's
important.
And I might talk about this moreand more moving forward on maybe
we'll make a whole episode aboutit because I do think we have to
be aware that influencer life isnot what it seems unless you
have the know how. And I knowinfluencers that have the know
(06:19):
how. They're making their deals.They're getting the right
payments for the content. Andthat's what needs to happen.
So this is not oh gosh. And forLorraine, if you're listening,
by the way, this is not don't bean influencer. This is like go
into it with your eyes openbecause the minute you start
giving away your content tothese brands, the more they're
just gonna take advantage. Andthat's why, I mean, Lorraine,
(06:41):
thank god, has has an agent. Soshe's getting her agents who
make the deals, and she's notmaking content for, like, this
crazy situation that I just gotasked.
I don't know. But I would loveLorraine's take on this one. I
mean, I'm not even gonna respondto it, to be honest. But,
Lorraine, if you're listening,and Joanna, my two people that
are in the mix of influencerlife, I would love to know what
(07:03):
you think of this. I'll forwardyou the email and you can read
it for yourself and give me yourfeedback.
All right. Now that I did mylittle rant about how everyone
should be careful if they startto grow suddenly on a social
media platform and then theystart to get so excited because
they're getting brand deals.Read the fine print. Okay? Okay.
So but I love my Oura Ring. Soback to that. I have no issue
with the product. I love theproduct. I love the app.
(07:26):
I love discovering how I slept.It also scolded me one time
because it said that I don'tsleep at the right time of day.
Well, F that. I like to go tosleep late and I sleep seven
hours. So leave me alone.
I'll get my seven hours when Iwant to get them. But anyway, it
does have a thing where it'slike not the best time to do
your sleeping, whatever. To eachhis own. So that was my only
(07:46):
minor complaint about it. Butother than that, I love it.
And I love tracking. And I likeseeing more accurately how much
movement I'm doing in a day. AndI think the battery lasts really
long. I did a lot of researchbefore I chose this brand over
other brands. And Julie had sentme a bunch to compare.
So I did my homework. I didn'tjust dive in. It also sends you,
you can order, if you do itonline, you can get the kit of
(08:09):
the sizes of the rings beforeyou order, which is really
helpful. And I did and I wentand got it in person at Best
Buy, a very rare moment where Imade an in person purchase. So
that's I tried it on right thenand there and decided I wanted
the silver, the shiny silver.
Okay. Next. One more. Sorry.We're going into the next one.
Purely Elizabeth. I have such astory about this. This one's
(08:30):
going be a long episode today.My Purely Elizabeth granola, I
love it. It's gluten free.
It has so many flavors now. Yougot the vanilla chocolate chip.
You got the chocolate sea salt.So you can get your little
chocolate dessert fix in ahealthy way. Love it.
I have lots of other flavorsdownstairs too that are already
poured into Tupperwarecontainers. So I don't have the
packages to show you, but theseare the ones that I love. And
(08:52):
the reason I picked PurelyElizabeth is I started with the
oatmeal because she was first anoatmeal brand even before she
was a straight up granola brand.So I got to tell you something
about Purely Elizabeth. I knowElizabeth.
That's the funny part. And whenI say I know her, I'm not going
to call her on the phonetomorrow. But I know her in
person because my office wasright next to her office on a
(09:15):
very small floor in an officebuilding in New York City. So I
had an office there on 20 FifthStreet. Crazy when I think about
it.
130 West 20 Fifth for, let'ssee, from 2002 to 2019. That's
how long I was on that floor, inthat same office. A really nice
loft space. I loved it. Loved itso much.
(09:39):
And on that floor there were twoother offices. One was an
eyeglasses company, an old manwho had an eyeglass shipping
company. And a tiny littleoffice that changed from a PR
company. There was a nonprofitin there. Tiny office.
As big as half of this roomhere. Really small. And purely
Elizabeth started in thatoffice. She was my neighbor. She
(10:02):
was had her granola in boxesthere.
She was shipping it, and she wasusing that space to do her
business. She wasn't makinggranola in that space. She was
obviously making it probably inher house at the time. I have no
idea. But I was friends withher.
I used to go over there and we,you know, I got your mail, you
got my mail, chitchat. Onepoint, I even offered to make
(10:22):
some content for her. This wasbefore any social media. This
was like, do you want me to helpyou make a commercial? Like that
kind of thing.
Had really, we were connected.Now she's not the warm and
fuzziest person. She's very toherself a little bit, I won't
even say standoffish becausethat sounds like rude in a way,
but she's not as likeeffervescent and out there like
(10:43):
me. Like I'm like out there. Andta da da, let me give you a hug,
you know.
She's not like that at all.She's very reserved, healthy,
conscious, like healthy,lifestyle conscious. She no
longer lives in New York City.She did move out West and I
think in the Colorado area whereall the healthy people are. But
anyway, she's awesome.
And I probably could reach outto her. I just don't feel like I
(11:06):
need to. And I, but I do, I am apurchaser forever since then of
the oatmeal and the granola. SoElizabeth, if you're watching, I
hope you're doing well. Haven'tseen you in a while.
I will always remember our timeon 20 Fifth Street. Alright. On
to the topic of the newsletter.Maybe I'll give Elizabeth a call
now and just tell her I talkedabout her on the podcast. Ay yai
(11:29):
yai.
Alright. Here we go. Why shouldyou post like social media is
your diary? And we're going todive in, whether it's TikTok,
whether it's Instagram. Whyshould you consider this?
And it's sort of trending now.People are talking about it and
it's always like, you know, thevibe all of a sudden now. We've
got people who are like, postlike it's your diary and that's
all of a sudden the new thing.But what it really means is not
(11:52):
like start a post off in deardiary. And it doesn't mean share
your most personal innerthoughts with the internet if
you don't want to do that, youknow?
It just means posting withoutjudgment on yourself. It means
posting what you feel likesaying. You're not overthinking
it. You're not kind of you'renot thinking what do people want
(12:12):
to hear. You're posting what youactually want to share.
That's that's a very bigdifference if you think about
it. I do think about my owncontent, like what would people
want to know when I talk abouttutorials or whatever. But
sometimes I just got to sharesomething. Like, I found
someone's license. I foundsomeone's passport in the
bathroom, and I really want tofind her, blah blah blah.
(12:33):
So I just post that. I want totell the story of how I
reconnected with her. So I justpost that. Someone asks me, how
are you so good at social media?Oh, I will tell the story of my
career.
And I'll just post that. Thething about this is posting like
you're on a FaceTime call with afriend, making it feel personal,
making it feel like you'rereally talking to the person.
(12:56):
Instead of looking at yourselfin the selfie camera, wherever
that is, you're looking at thecamera. You're talking to your
audience. You're sharing withyour audience.
And this builds community andloyalty, and it actually makes
people feel your feel likethey're your friend. So I'm
gonna get a little into the kindof I'll keep it organized the
way the newsletter was because Ialso kind of jumped all around.
(13:18):
But what it means is if you havea random thought about
something, makeup, your auraring, whatever it is, that you
go, oh, let me pick up my phoneright now and say it. And I just
met with someone who's in mystudio and also I met with her
privately first. And I just wastalking to her about that and
she said, you know what I foundmost successful so far since she
(13:38):
just started on social media, acouple like, I want to say a
couple of weeks ago.
She said, when I think of athing, I just pick up my phone
and I record it. Yes, girl. Yes.That's what you're doing. You're
going, now's my moment.
Everything isn't perfect. Idon't have whatever, set up,
whatever. I'm just recording. Soit's like doing that random
(13:58):
thought. Now, this is not foreveryone.
And a lot of times forbusinesses you might think, oh,
that's not for me. I want toplan my content better. Sure
thing. If you're a business andyou want to strategize and come
to the studio and go to thesmall business center and get
your four ideas for the week andplan ahead. Yes, yes, yes.
But let's say you are a businessowner and something really cool
(14:19):
happens. Like a person reachesout to you to say thank you
because your product or yourservice changed something in
their life. And you just feel sogood. And in that moment, you
pick up your phone and yourecord that. I bet you, I bet
you a lot that that video doesbetter than all of your business
videos.
I bet you. I'm just saying.Because people want real, raw
(14:41):
and inspirational or heartfelt.We're all looking for that. And
I think that people arescrolling are looking for it
too.
So just even if you're abusiness and you want to
disregard this as a strategy, Ithink you should think about it
as a part of a possible strategythat you can sprinkle in. Okey
(15:02):
doke. Now sometimes theoverproduced, overscripted, over
edited, blah blah blah videosthat you spend so much time on
fall flat, do poorly, and it'sso devastating. And what'll
happen is the opposite. Like,the piece of thing that you
picked up and you just said thething, all of a sudden that one
goes viral.
So it's true that even thoughyou think the algorithm is
(15:24):
against me, I worked so hard onthat video, it's also the
audience who is into it or not.And that's what helps you have a
viral video. I've talked aboutthis a lot of times, so I won't
belabor it now, but I will talkabout it again on another
strategy session, is that themost significant worthwhile
(15:45):
metric that really helps you goviral is when your video is
being sent from person toperson. So the send feature is
first. And then the favoritingfeature is second in terms of
hierarchy.
So even though people talk aboutengaging from the bottom up,
it's not so I don't believe innecessarily that you should do
that on people's videos. It onlyhelps the person on the video.
So it's great for the contentcreator, but it's not going to
(16:06):
help you go viral. But anyway,the meaning of that is that the
most important metric for thealgorithm starts at the bottom.
So the send is the highestmetric, and then the favorite,
and then the comments, and thenthe likes.
So you could have like a lot oflikes on a video. Not likely to
go viral if you have a lot ofshares, people sending your
videos to other people. Sorelatability and something you
(16:27):
say that happens off the top ofyour head about a moment in a
store or how you were treated ata place that made you feel good
or something something. Somebodywill like more likely to forward
that to someone else. And that'swhat will help you get more
views on your content.
Woo hoo. Next up. Here's one.Don't overanalyze your content
because this is one of thethings that we always say don't
(16:49):
don't overanalyze. It's hard todo it.
But when you're posting likeit's your diary and you're just
winging up your phone and justlike rambling, that's more
likely to be less overanalyzedby you. And in that case, it
does go viral. Now even when Irecord my, like, off the cuff,
like, pick up my phone, blah,blah, blah, blah videos, I do
tend to edit them after. And Idon't mean edit my what I'm
(17:10):
gonna say. I mean I'llafterwards go, I was really
rambling for too long about thattopic, so I chop the center out.
And I but so I let myselframble. I don't I don't edit
myself as I'm speaking. I speak,speak, speak, speak my mind. And
then after I listen to it and Igo, well, I really went on too
much about that part. So I justtake that part out.
(17:31):
And I don't care if it's jumpcuts and it's like choppy.
That's more interesting for theviewer anyway. So ramble,
ramble, ramble, but then edit.And that will help you for sure.
I can tell you that for sure.
Alrighty. And then the otherthing that this does for you,
this type of mindset, is that itlets your audience get to know
(17:53):
you more. And that buildsloyalty. So the other thing I
was talking about with thiscreator that I met with today is
that when you're building, youwant to post a lot in your
niche. You want to stay not stayin your lane at all.
No. I don't believe in that. ButI mean post more about the thing
that you want to be known for.But make sure you sprinkle in
(18:14):
your personal stories, yourpersonal self. In her case, she
was adopted.
So it's like, I said, tell thatstory. Like, you're going get
people who are going to be onboard with you because they have
that in common with you. Or theyknow someone that's like you.
Whatever it is. So you want touse that to build that kind of
loyalty.
It really helps because it'slike I know that parasocial,
(18:38):
there's like the negativeconnotations to that, that
people feel they know you. And Ihave that situation. It happens
a lot. I, as soon as I meetpeople, like, Oh my God, feel
like I know you. And, you know,they do because I'm in their
feed every day like tellingthem, teaching them this or
dancing that or whatever.
So that's a reality, but it'salso a way to build your
community because people do feellike they know you. So you have
(19:00):
to accept that that's going tobe part of it if you go down
this path, and you have to beokay with it. And I'm totally
okay with it. I enjoy it so muchwhen someone comes up to me and
they feel like they know me, I'mlike, oh my god, let me know you
too, you know. I embrace itbecause that's who I am.
So anyway, the point is whenyour viewers feel connected to
you, they are going to have moreof a loyalty. And I'm going to
(19:25):
close with this because I hadanother private session this
past week. And it was with agentleman who I just didn't
expect this. He had I wish thatI was recording that session
because it was so moving, thethings that he said in the
beginning. And then I was like,man, I wish I was recording this
because he told oh, how come I'mdo this without being emotional?
(19:49):
But he told me that he was holdon, drink. Okay, regroup.
Because he told me he wasfollowing me during my cancer
journey. And he's like, Yeah, Iwould, I was so inspired
watching you. And yikes.
I hate when this happensunexpectedly. But he said that
(20:09):
he would go to my page becausehe would go, oh, I think she had
a doctor's appointmentyesterday. Let me see if she
posted. Are you freaking kiddingme? Like, somebody in the middle
of I think he lives in Colorado.
I can't remember now. But somewherever he lives. He was
invested in what I was goingthrough. You know what I mean?
(20:30):
And that, it's moving.
So the point is, I was moved bythis because I realized the
impact that I had on someone Ididn't even know, which is like
that's the part I think we don'trealize as creators. So when you
start to put yourself out there,you might not realize the impact
(20:51):
you're having and you may neverknow. Like if I never had a one
on one with this guy, I wouldnever have known about this. And
to me, it's like holy crap. LikeI don't even think I realize the
impact that some of my videoshave had on people.
And I'll never know. I mean, wasrandom that I got to know from
from this one because I had ameeting and it was like, oh, I
(21:14):
just want to say this to youbefore we start. And I was like
blown away. I don't even knowhow I even kept it together. But
I think the point is it's justthat is just a big dramatic
maybe example, I guess.
But it's it just shows you thateven when you post and somebody
says, oh, I only have 200 viewson my videos, 200 is a lot of
(21:35):
people. And of those 200 people,like, someone was really
impacted. I'm positive. It'sjust like it's the odds are that
if 200 people think about 200people at a party. That's a big
party.
You need think of wedding. Okay.You had a whole wedding watching
a video. Not even. That's a bigwedding because I think of
wedding as a 100 people.
So you have a 200 person weddingwatching your video and someone
(21:57):
was moved. You know, someonemade a connection of the odds
are. So I think that what we'rereally missing with, like, this
whole, oh, I don't have my viewsare so low is, like, are they,
though? Because you really mightbe impacting someone, and you
don't even realize it. So Iguess the whole point here is
post like it's your diary andwhatever that means to you.
(22:20):
And you never know who you'reimpacting. Okay? If you loved
this episode despite mybreakdown, please subscribe
because then you'll get thenotifications when I release an
episode And I think it helps mein the algorithm. So subscribe,
make a comment, make a littlerating. I never ask that.
So on this one, since I bared mysoul, I'm asking you to please
(22:44):
do something. Press the buttonson a podcast, whatever that
means. And thank you so much forbeing here with me week to week.
I hope you had a good shower.You know who you are.
Bye.
Welcome to The Socialize Strategy. Happy Friday, and
today we are going to talk abouta specific social media
strategy. But before I do that,I want to go over my unsponsored
by items for this week. I alwayslike to make sure to include in
those things that I usefrequently, so that this is
really my true review. It'ssomething that I'm very close to
(00:21):
in my life.
And my first one is my OuraRing. It's on the charger right
now charging up. And you cansee, well, you can't really see.
But anyway, there's a littlelight here that indicates it's
charging. And when this lightturns green, then it indicates
that it's completed.
So I'm going to leave it on thecharger. But I wear it on this
finger. And the reason I decidedto get one of these, it's not
(00:44):
because I'm going to track everyfootstep I make in a day. I
don't even need to track mysleep because I sleep really
well, although I am alwayscurious about my sleep stats and
I do tend to look at that a lot.I just like to know how long I'm
sleeping, how settled I am, whatmy heart rate is.
I enjoy the sleep facts. But Idon't wear an Apple Watch and
(01:05):
I've never been a person thathas embraced a Fitbit or
anything like that. So this isreally something that I dove in
with the purpose being, let mesee how well I sleep. Let me
have some type of tracking of myfootsteps. Because even though I
know our phones track ourfootsteps, it's not the same.
Because often I put my phonedown and I go somewhere and I do
things. So because it's not withme all the time. If I'm wearing
(01:28):
a ring on my finger, like myOura Ring, it's with me all the
time. There it is. It's comingwith me when whenever I go
somewhere.
So that's why I like it becauseI don't really have to think
about it. It's just a part of myjewelry and off I go. And I
recently posted a video where Imentioned Oura Ring in the
caption. I was saying that I'dbeen sitting all day and my Oura
Ring alerted me it's time to getup. So when I posted that, I
(01:51):
wrote in the caption, notsponsored by Oura Ring quote
yet.
And of course they reached outto me. But I have to laugh
because these brands reach out.And just in case you think it's
like a money machine, thiscompany, I'm going to be
completely honest, I'm going seeif I can open the email now and
either read it or at least tellyou what it was. Okay, it's
(02:13):
share your wellness journey withthe Oura Ring Creator
Opportunity. And it goes on andon.
What about we're excited, yourcontent caught our eye, we
discovered your page, Love yourpassion for wellness. Yada yada
yada. As an Aura creator, whatyou'll enjoy. And this is where
this is the benefits to me.Early access to Ring models.
(02:33):
What does that mean? They'regonna send me something? Monthly
swag and gear drops. Are theysending me this for free? I
don't know.
Your own creator code. K.Thanks. I have to, like, share
it to earn. Featured on channelsof wellness.
Oh, yes. They wanna use mycontent in their ads. Not paying
me. Competitive compensationbased on engagement and sales.
(02:54):
Right there is a red flag.
If you are someone who iswanting to do brand collabs, and
right away it's about based onengagement and sales. When you
post sponsored content, it isautomatic that you are not going
to get the same engagement.Sponsored posts do not get the
same engagement. That's whyadvertisers and brands pay for
(03:18):
media buys. Because when abrand, sorry, when a creator is
doing a sponsored post and itsays sponsored right away, the
person knows this is an ad andthey're likely going to scroll.
So the automatically, theengagement is going to go down.
So it's not fair to a creatorwho is spending the time making
a video, posting it, and theyhave to do the rule, post it as
(03:40):
if it's sponsored. Automaticallyyou're not going to get the
engagement. And they're puttingthat into their their ask so
that you don't you're not gonnamake money. Clearly, it says,
like, you're not gonna it'sgonna your compensation is gonna
be based on how many views yourcontent gets, and automatically,
your your content is not gonnaget that many views because you
have to disclose that it'ssponsored.
You see what I'm saying? This islike a very weird I'm being
(04:02):
straight honest with you rightnow. It's a very weird, industry
where creators are somewhattaking advantage of now. Like I
could make a great piece ofcontent. It's a great ad.
But because it says sponsored,it doesn't get pushed out, so it
doesn't get as many views. So Iget paid very little. And then
they're allowed to use it, itlooks like, in their, wellness
(04:26):
campaigns. But you know what?That would have to be a payment
if they're going to use it.
So that's where I think creatorsdon't necessarily know they have
to pay attention to the fineprint when they get offered. Oh,
this sounds so exciting. I'mgoing to be representing the
Oura Ring. Like, I got excitedfor half a second. Even knowing
what I know, I still got excitedfor half a second.
It also says, here we go, ta tada da. But we ask, create 10
(04:49):
pieces of content per monthshowcasing how Oura fits into
your wellness routine. 10 videosper month? That seems insane to
me. I'm sorry.
And then at the end, this is apaid performance based
partnership with potential togrow into a long term
collaboration. So that is myhonest disclosure of what it's
(05:17):
like to have a brand offer andinitially potentially get
excited about it. And then findout, I don't know if this really
benefits me so much. Becausewhat my takeaway is that they're
only going to pay if my organiccontent that is labeled
sponsorship does well. Likelyit's not.
And then they're going to beable to use my content on their
(05:39):
own paid ads. So then they'regoing to be able to put money
behind it and push my ad out topeople. That maybe my ad's going
to be good if there's moneybehind it. Oh my God. This is
getting me more mad the more Italk about it.
So I'm not mad at Aura. I'm madat the process of brands in
general. Because Aura, I'm surethis is just like what a lot of
(05:59):
brands do. I'm sure it's thesame thing. So I think it's
important.
And I might talk about this moreand more moving forward on maybe
we'll make a whole episode aboutit because I do think we have to
be aware that influencer life isnot what it seems unless you
have the know how. And I knowinfluencers that have the know
(06:19):
how. They're making their deals.They're getting the right
payments for the content. Andthat's what needs to happen.
So this is not oh gosh. And forLorraine, if you're listening,
by the way, this is not don't bean influencer. This is like go
into it with your eyes openbecause the minute you start
giving away your content tothese brands, the more they're
just gonna take advantage. Andthat's why, I mean, Lorraine,
(06:41):
thank god, has has an agent. Soshe's getting her agents who
make the deals, and she's notmaking content for, like, this
crazy situation that I just gotasked.
I don't know. But I would loveLorraine's take on this one. I
mean, I'm not even gonna respondto it, to be honest. But,
Lorraine, if you're listening,and Joanna, my two people that
are in the mix of influencerlife, I would love to know what
(07:03):
you think of this. I'll forwardyou the email and you can read
it for yourself and give me yourfeedback.
All right. Now that I did mylittle rant about how everyone
should be careful if they startto grow suddenly on a social
media platform and then theystart to get so excited because
they're getting brand deals.Read the fine print. Okay? Okay.
So but I love my Oura Ring. Soback to that. I have no issue
with the product. I love theproduct. I love the app.
(07:26):
I love discovering how I slept.It also scolded me one time
because it said that I don'tsleep at the right time of day.
Well, F that. I like to go tosleep late and I sleep seven
hours. So leave me alone.
I'll get my seven hours when Iwant to get them. But anyway, it
does have a thing where it'slike not the best time to do
your sleeping, whatever. To eachhis own. So that was my only
(07:46):
minor complaint about it. Butother than that, I love it.
And I love tracking. And I likeseeing more accurately how much
movement I'm doing in a day. AndI think the battery lasts really
long. I did a lot of researchbefore I chose this brand over
other brands. And Julie had sentme a bunch to compare.
So I did my homework. I didn'tjust dive in. It also sends you,
you can order, if you do itonline, you can get the kit of
(08:09):
the sizes of the rings beforeyou order, which is really
helpful. And I did and I wentand got it in person at Best
Buy, a very rare moment where Imade an in person purchase. So
that's I tried it on right thenand there and decided I wanted
the silver, the shiny silver.
Okay. Next. One more. Sorry.We're going into the next one.
Purely Elizabeth. I have such astory about this. This one's
(08:30):
going be a long episode today.My Purely Elizabeth granola, I
love it. It's gluten free.
It has so many flavors now. Yougot the vanilla chocolate chip.
You got the chocolate sea salt.So you can get your little
chocolate dessert fix in ahealthy way. Love it.
I have lots of other flavorsdownstairs too that are already
poured into Tupperwarecontainers. So I don't have the
packages to show you, but theseare the ones that I love. And
(08:52):
the reason I picked PurelyElizabeth is I started with the
oatmeal because she was first anoatmeal brand even before she
was a straight up granola brand.So I got to tell you something
about Purely Elizabeth. I knowElizabeth.
That's the funny part. And whenI say I know her, I'm not going
to call her on the phonetomorrow. But I know her in
person because my office wasright next to her office on a
(09:15):
very small floor in an officebuilding in New York City. So I
had an office there on 20 FifthStreet. Crazy when I think about
it.
130 West 20 Fifth for, let'ssee, from 2002 to 2019. That's
how long I was on that floor, inthat same office. A really nice
loft space. I loved it. Loved itso much.
(09:39):
And on that floor there were twoother offices. One was an
eyeglasses company, an old manwho had an eyeglass shipping
company. And a tiny littleoffice that changed from a PR
company. There was a nonprofitin there. Tiny office.
As big as half of this roomhere. Really small. And purely
Elizabeth started in thatoffice. She was my neighbor. She
(10:02):
was had her granola in boxesthere.
She was shipping it, and she wasusing that space to do her
business. She wasn't makinggranola in that space. She was
obviously making it probably inher house at the time. I have no
idea. But I was friends withher.
I used to go over there and we,you know, I got your mail, you
got my mail, chitchat. Onepoint, I even offered to make
(10:22):
some content for her. This wasbefore any social media. This
was like, do you want me to helpyou make a commercial? Like that
kind of thing.
Had really, we were connected.Now she's not the warm and
fuzziest person. She's very toherself a little bit, I won't
even say standoffish becausethat sounds like rude in a way,
but she's not as likeeffervescent and out there like
(10:43):
me. Like I'm like out there. Andta da da, let me give you a hug,
you know.
She's not like that at all.She's very reserved, healthy,
conscious, like healthy,lifestyle conscious. She no
longer lives in New York City.She did move out West and I
think in the Colorado area whereall the healthy people are. But
anyway, she's awesome.
And I probably could reach outto her. I just don't feel like I
(11:06):
need to. And I, but I do, I am apurchaser forever since then of
the oatmeal and the granola. SoElizabeth, if you're watching, I
hope you're doing well. Haven'tseen you in a while.
I will always remember our timeon 20 Fifth Street. Alright. On
to the topic of the newsletter.Maybe I'll give Elizabeth a call
now and just tell her I talkedabout her on the podcast. Ay yai
(11:29):
yai.
Alright. Here we go. Why shouldyou post like social media is
your diary? And we're going todive in, whether it's TikTok,
whether it's Instagram. Whyshould you consider this?
And it's sort of trending now.People are talking about it and
it's always like, you know, thevibe all of a sudden now. We've
got people who are like, postlike it's your diary and that's
all of a sudden the new thing.But what it really means is not
(11:52):
like start a post off in deardiary. And it doesn't mean share
your most personal innerthoughts with the internet if
you don't want to do that, youknow?
It just means posting withoutjudgment on yourself. It means
posting what you feel likesaying. You're not overthinking
it. You're not kind of you'renot thinking what do people want
(12:12):
to hear. You're posting what youactually want to share.
That's that's a very bigdifference if you think about
it. I do think about my owncontent, like what would people
want to know when I talk abouttutorials or whatever. But
sometimes I just got to sharesomething. Like, I found
someone's license. I foundsomeone's passport in the
bathroom, and I really want tofind her, blah blah blah.
(12:33):
So I just post that. I want totell the story of how I
reconnected with her. So I justpost that. Someone asks me, how
are you so good at social media?Oh, I will tell the story of my
career.
And I'll just post that. Thething about this is posting like
you're on a FaceTime call with afriend, making it feel personal,
making it feel like you'rereally talking to the person.
(12:56):
Instead of looking at yourselfin the selfie camera, wherever
that is, you're looking at thecamera. You're talking to your
audience. You're sharing withyour audience.
And this builds community andloyalty, and it actually makes
people feel your feel likethey're your friend. So I'm
gonna get a little into the kindof I'll keep it organized the
way the newsletter was because Ialso kind of jumped all around.
(13:18):
But what it means is if you havea random thought about
something, makeup, your auraring, whatever it is, that you
go, oh, let me pick up my phoneright now and say it. And I just
met with someone who's in mystudio and also I met with her
privately first. And I just wastalking to her about that and
she said, you know what I foundmost successful so far since she
(13:38):
just started on social media, acouple like, I want to say a
couple of weeks ago.
She said, when I think of athing, I just pick up my phone
and I record it. Yes, girl. Yes.That's what you're doing. You're
going, now's my moment.
Everything isn't perfect. Idon't have whatever, set up,
whatever. I'm just recording. Soit's like doing that random
(13:58):
thought. Now, this is not foreveryone.
And a lot of times forbusinesses you might think, oh,
that's not for me. I want toplan my content better. Sure
thing. If you're a business andyou want to strategize and come
to the studio and go to thesmall business center and get
your four ideas for the week andplan ahead. Yes, yes, yes.
But let's say you are a businessowner and something really cool
(14:19):
happens. Like a person reachesout to you to say thank you
because your product or yourservice changed something in
their life. And you just feel sogood. And in that moment, you
pick up your phone and yourecord that. I bet you, I bet
you a lot that that video doesbetter than all of your business
videos.
I bet you. I'm just saying.Because people want real, raw
(14:41):
and inspirational or heartfelt.We're all looking for that. And
I think that people arescrolling are looking for it
too.
So just even if you're abusiness and you want to
disregard this as a strategy, Ithink you should think about it
as a part of a possible strategythat you can sprinkle in. Okey
(15:02):
doke. Now sometimes theoverproduced, overscripted, over
edited, blah blah blah videosthat you spend so much time on
fall flat, do poorly, and it'sso devastating. And what'll
happen is the opposite. Like,the piece of thing that you
picked up and you just said thething, all of a sudden that one
goes viral.
So it's true that even thoughyou think the algorithm is
(15:24):
against me, I worked so hard onthat video, it's also the
audience who is into it or not.And that's what helps you have a
viral video. I've talked aboutthis a lot of times, so I won't
belabor it now, but I will talkabout it again on another
strategy session, is that themost significant worthwhile
(15:45):
metric that really helps you goviral is when your video is
being sent from person toperson. So the send feature is
first. And then the favoritingfeature is second in terms of
hierarchy.
So even though people talk aboutengaging from the bottom up,
it's not so I don't believe innecessarily that you should do
that on people's videos. It onlyhelps the person on the video.
So it's great for the contentcreator, but it's not going to
(16:06):
help you go viral. But anyway,the meaning of that is that the
most important metric for thealgorithm starts at the bottom.
So the send is the highestmetric, and then the favorite,
and then the comments, and thenthe likes.
So you could have like a lot oflikes on a video. Not likely to
go viral if you have a lot ofshares, people sending your
videos to other people. Sorelatability and something you
(16:27):
say that happens off the top ofyour head about a moment in a
store or how you were treated ata place that made you feel good
or something something. Somebodywill like more likely to forward
that to someone else. And that'swhat will help you get more
views on your content.
Woo hoo. Next up. Here's one.Don't overanalyze your content
because this is one of thethings that we always say don't
(16:49):
don't overanalyze. It's hard todo it.
But when you're posting likeit's your diary and you're just
winging up your phone and justlike rambling, that's more
likely to be less overanalyzedby you. And in that case, it
does go viral. Now even when Irecord my, like, off the cuff,
like, pick up my phone, blah,blah, blah, blah videos, I do
tend to edit them after. And Idon't mean edit my what I'm
(17:10):
gonna say. I mean I'llafterwards go, I was really
rambling for too long about thattopic, so I chop the center out.
And I but so I let myselframble. I don't I don't edit
myself as I'm speaking. I speak,speak, speak, speak my mind. And
then after I listen to it and Igo, well, I really went on too
much about that part. So I justtake that part out.
(17:31):
And I don't care if it's jumpcuts and it's like choppy.
That's more interesting for theviewer anyway. So ramble,
ramble, ramble, but then edit.And that will help you for sure.
I can tell you that for sure.
Alrighty. And then the otherthing that this does for you,
this type of mindset, is that itlets your audience get to know
(17:53):
you more. And that buildsloyalty. So the other thing I
was talking about with thiscreator that I met with today is
that when you're building, youwant to post a lot in your
niche. You want to stay not stayin your lane at all.
No. I don't believe in that. ButI mean post more about the thing
that you want to be known for.But make sure you sprinkle in
(18:14):
your personal stories, yourpersonal self. In her case, she
was adopted.
So it's like, I said, tell thatstory. Like, you're going get
people who are going to be onboard with you because they have
that in common with you. Or theyknow someone that's like you.
Whatever it is. So you want touse that to build that kind of
loyalty.
It really helps because it'slike I know that parasocial,
(18:38):
there's like the negativeconnotations to that, that
people feel they know you. And Ihave that situation. It happens
a lot. I, as soon as I meetpeople, like, Oh my God, feel
like I know you. And, you know,they do because I'm in their
feed every day like tellingthem, teaching them this or
dancing that or whatever.
So that's a reality, but it'salso a way to build your
community because people do feellike they know you. So you have
(19:00):
to accept that that's going tobe part of it if you go down
this path, and you have to beokay with it. And I'm totally
okay with it. I enjoy it so muchwhen someone comes up to me and
they feel like they know me, I'mlike, oh my god, let me know you
too, you know. I embrace itbecause that's who I am.
So anyway, the point is whenyour viewers feel connected to
you, they are going to have moreof a loyalty. And I'm going to
(19:25):
close with this because I hadanother private session this
past week. And it was with agentleman who I just didn't
expect this. He had I wish thatI was recording that session
because it was so moving, thethings that he said in the
beginning. And then I was like,man, I wish I was recording this
because he told oh, how come I'mdo this without being emotional?
(19:49):
But he told me that he was holdon, drink. Okay, regroup.
Because he told me he wasfollowing me during my cancer
journey. And he's like, Yeah, Iwould, I was so inspired
watching you. And yikes.
I hate when this happensunexpectedly. But he said that
(20:09):
he would go to my page becausehe would go, oh, I think she had
a doctor's appointmentyesterday. Let me see if she
posted. Are you freaking kiddingme? Like, somebody in the middle
of I think he lives in Colorado.
I can't remember now. But somewherever he lives. He was
invested in what I was goingthrough. You know what I mean?
(20:30):
And that, it's moving.
So the point is, I was moved bythis because I realized the
impact that I had on someone Ididn't even know, which is like
that's the part I think we don'trealize as creators. So when you
start to put yourself out there,you might not realize the impact
(20:51):
you're having and you may neverknow. Like if I never had a one
on one with this guy, I wouldnever have known about this. And
to me, it's like holy crap. LikeI don't even think I realize the
impact that some of my videoshave had on people.
And I'll never know. I mean, wasrandom that I got to know from
from this one because I had ameeting and it was like, oh, I
(21:14):
just want to say this to youbefore we start. And I was like
blown away. I don't even knowhow I even kept it together. But
I think the point is it's justthat is just a big dramatic
maybe example, I guess.
But it's it just shows you thateven when you post and somebody
says, oh, I only have 200 viewson my videos, 200 is a lot of
(21:35):
people. And of those 200 people,like, someone was really
impacted. I'm positive. It'sjust like it's the odds are that
if 200 people think about 200people at a party. That's a big
party.
You need think of wedding. Okay.You had a whole wedding watching
a video. Not even. That's a bigwedding because I think of
wedding as a 100 people.
So you have a 200 person weddingwatching your video and someone
(21:57):
was moved. You know, someonemade a connection of the odds
are. So I think that what we'rereally missing with, like, this
whole, oh, I don't have my viewsare so low is, like, are they,
though? Because you really mightbe impacting someone, and you
don't even realize it. So Iguess the whole point here is
post like it's your diary andwhatever that means to you.
(22:20):
And you never know who you'reimpacting. Okay? If you loved
this episode despite mybreakdown, please subscribe
because then you'll get thenotifications when I release an
episode And I think it helps mein the algorithm. So subscribe,
make a comment, make a littlerating. I never ask that.
So on this one, since I bared mysoul, I'm asking you to please
(22:44):
do something. Press the buttonson a podcast, whatever that
means. And thank you so much forbeing here with me week to week.
I hope you had a good shower.You know who you are.
Bye.
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