1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record? 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Elijah, I do believe that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall we start a podcast? 4 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,000 We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast. 5 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:43,000 Let's start a podcast, shall we? My name is Elijah. I'm here with Marie to talk about digital content creation because it's not okay just to post as a podcaster your episode once a week and then disappear. 6 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:55,000 So we're going to go through the behind the scenes techniques, what different social applications mean and why an engineer wanted to be a digital creator. Is that cool with you, Marie? 7 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:03,000 Absolutely perfect. You nailed it. Awesome. I'm batting a thousand as the Westerners say, so that's good news. We're off to a great start. 8 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:18,000 But for you to start, engineering was your passion before you got into content creation. I think maybe you were practicing your yoga, post on your head as you are on Instagram, 9 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:26,000 and then maybe you had a realization that you really want to just sit on countertops for the rest of your life snapping photos. Is that why you got into digital creation? 10 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:35,000 It's very close. I would say very close, Elijah. So let me just clarify some things. Engineering was a passion of mine before. I had several passions. 11 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:47,000 You know, a lot of us with ADHD always have several interests. Engineering was one. And coming from an Asian country or nation family, you're either a doctor or a disappointment. 12 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:59,000 So I didn't want to be a doctor, so I had to be the other one. But I made it the goal to tell my parents, like, don't be. I'm not a big disappointment because I got into medical engineering. 13 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:15,000 And that was actually the reason why I got into Germany. So I was working as an engineer in Germany for three and a half years. But actually, even before that, in my university days, I was already indirectly, unconsciously working for marketing stuff. 14 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:29,000 I was doing graphic design. I was making events. I was doing community management, all without branding it as marketing. So when I was an engineer, like three years down the line, I kind of got bored of it. 15 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:41,000 And I was like, hmm, what can I do after? So I started doing social media on the side. I started doing community management on the side. And I was thinking, these are actually things I've already done before. 16 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:53,000 And I am also like kind of like social media obsessed that time. So I was like, oh, this is something I can do. So I said, OK, I quit my job, told myself I'll do one year of a gap year. 17 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:05,000 Never really did a gap year in my life. So this was time for me to just give myself the pause that it deserves. So I wanted to serve. I wanted to do yoga for a whole year. 18 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:18,000 But this was the changing point. I got into an accident and I broke my arm, not because of yoga. Ironically, it was because of bouldering and I broke my arm. 19 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:23,000 So I couldn't serve. I couldn't do yoga. I couldn't do all the things that I wanted to do for that whole half year. 20 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:32,000 And I was like, hmm, maybe this is the universe telling me to actually focus on my next career. And I was like, OK, what is this next career going to happen? 21 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:40,000 You know, like, of course, imposter syndrome is there. Everything is there. But then what I did have was my social media knowledge. 22 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:50,000 And at the same time, I was also working on myself. So I had my profile. My TikTok profile was like booming, grew it to like 50K in one month. 23 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:58,000 So I knew the strategies. I knew how to geek out and nerd out about these things. And that I use that to kind of like get more clients. 24 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000 And the clients loved my work, you know, and then it kind of snowballed. 25 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:12,000 And now having my own like marketing agency, more focused on the creatives part as well, which is the complete 180 of an engineer. 26 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000 But what I would say is it's still very beneficial because it's crucial. 27 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:22,000 The soft skills that I get from engineering, the analysis part, the problem solving part. 28 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:29,000 Those are the things that you can't really get normally in a creative aspect, right? 29 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,000 Creative side of world where we can't really even put metrics on it. 30 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:47,000 It really explains what goes inside of your mind as an engineer. But do you think in blueprints and designs all the time? 31 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:53,000 Do you have to develop some sort of flow charts and diagrams and pointers all over the place to get your story scripts down? 32 00:04:53,000 --> 00:05:01,000 Normally with my story scripts, I just, it depends. If it's organic, I just talk from the heart normally. 33 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Of course, there are some, some like, you know, patterns that you need to do. Everybody knows about the good hooks. 34 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:12,000 Everybody knows what to practice for the hooks and what to practice for the things that you have to say. 35 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:18,000 And then obviously your call to actions, right? But the best thing is always just like say it out loud. 36 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Say it what you can do and then edit it right after. 37 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:30,000 When I deal with advertisements where you just have a limited time slot for that, usually 20 seconds to 30 seconds. 38 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:34,000 That's the time I kind of like do more of a plug and play with my format. 39 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:44,000 So I have like, I have like the idle format, the results and social proof formats. 40 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:52,000 I have like different ways. And normally I don't do it with the creatives I do, but I do love making flow charts for my mentor, for my mentees. 41 00:05:52,000 --> 00:06:00,000 So I coach a bunch of like content creators and they have like a lot of questions about like, OK, should I charge this? Should I charge that? 42 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,000 What to do if it's this way? What if it's that way? And I'm like, OK, you know what? 43 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:10,000 I made this one whole flow chart that became viral in the UGC community actually about like, what if it's like this way? 44 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,000 What if it's that way? And I'm trying to always try to just simplify things. 45 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000 And yeah, I love making flow charts, actually. 46 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,000 Fantastic. You found TikTok seems to come really easy to you. 47 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:29,000 You have no issues with that. But is there a particular social platform that just makes your head scratch and confuses you? 48 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 To get it moving or have you excelled at all the social platforms? 49 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,000 I don't want to be a brag, but I did. So yeah, I did excel at all social media platforms. 50 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:48,000 But the platform that I absolutely like just hate to start again is Instagram. 51 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:53,000 And not because I don't get results, but you need patience with Instagram. 52 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,000 It's not an overnight success, even with my clients' Instagrams. 53 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:07,000 It's all about consistency. So a lot of my clients, it's like when you start posting basically the algorithm awards consistency. 54 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,000 So your first two months, you have to start posting almost every day. 55 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:16,000 And even that, it's not going to there's not going to be a lot of reach, a lot of like comments. 56 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:21,000 But then suddenly the third month, it just becomes like, boom, like crazy. 57 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,000 And I don't know how that works. I don't know when exactly it will be. 58 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000 But I've done it for like three, four clients already who've been working with me. 59 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:39,000 And that's why I also have like a three to six month retainer with clients, because it never happens just in the first month in terms of like organic growth. 60 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:44,000 Right. With everything else, Twitter, I kind of know a little bit about it as well. 61 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:54,000 And with anything with creatives, it's just really easy, especially to figure out what catches people's attention. 62 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:00,000 When you say consistent, are you talking about every four hours, every once a week, every day, same time? 63 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:04,000 Or is there a special sauce that without giving away your secrets? 64 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,000 I like giving away my secrets. Like that's the reason why like clients like to work with me. 65 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 Like they know exactly what I'm doing. They just need someone to do it for them. 66 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:19,000 So for me, what I always do is it's an everyday once a day post. Sometimes you do two times a day. 67 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:25,000 We don't usually use a scheduling tool for reels, but for photos we do. 68 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:29,000 And this is coming from a trial and error testing all the time. 69 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:38,000 You know, I love data, like I said, and from data, that's what I saw that like if you post the reels by yourself manually, that makes it even easier. 70 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,000 And it gives more reach. 71 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:46,000 Obviously, you're using also the trending audio of Instagram right there. 72 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000 And at the same time, doing the engagement as well. 73 00:08:49,000 --> 00:09:00,000 So figuring out which times your audience is available is really key for your static posts. 74 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:10,000 Whereas for reels, which is like a discovery, kind of like already being a discovery platform, it doesn't really matter as much. 75 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,000 But you need to make sure that you're using the right trending audio. 76 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:21,000 The trending audio and aesthetics seems to be a real thing with consistency on Instagram. 77 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:31,000 In TikTok, I've heard rumors that it's more organic or just talking off the cuff or just going at something and being more real. 78 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:35,000 Is there any truth to that or have you found a particular vibe on TikTok? 79 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:39,000 No, no, no. That's also how I started. I wouldn't say it's all being real. 80 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:44,000 I know a lot of people who get viral is because they have dedicated scripts and it's like a plug and play. 81 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,000 You know, you just change some wording and everything. 82 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:52,000 And that's because we know what the audience wants. Right. 83 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:58,000 And TikTok is all about unhinged content. It's nothing about aesthetics. 84 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Obviously, if you're a brand in photography or if you're a brand in, let's say, content creation, and that is your unique selling point. 85 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,000 Obviously, you have to do something like in the aesthetic side. 86 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:20,000 But TikTok is more about relatability, about being human and making sure that you're making a community out of the people that are watching your videos. 87 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:30,000 So the best way to do that is to push out relatable content and to do something viral, you have to make sure that you add a little bit. 88 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:37,000 You can either do controversy or relatability or inspirational. And that's what the reason why people are sharing. 89 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:42,000 Obviously, there are also like these point metrics that I can't really like say if it works or not. 90 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:50,000 But like they say, like, you know, the number of shares is the best metric for to for TikTok to push it out. 91 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:57,000 Then the number of comments, then the number of saves, then the number of likes is the last one. Right. 92 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,000 So those are also the things that you have to consider. 93 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:11,000 So when you think about posting, you know, posting a TikTok or if you already posted a TikTok, you figure out in your videos, I was like, OK, there's not a lot of there's not a lot of shares. 94 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:18,000 It's not a shareable content. How do I make another TikTok that is actually shareable? 95 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:29,000 You know, but in the whole organic strategy of a brand, you don't have to make sure that every single content that you make is shareable. 96 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:38,000 Because at the end of the day, what you need is more sales, at least for Econ Brands, which is the reason that I'm making, which is my target audience. 97 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:51,000 So we would always push out like like an alternate between reach ability, scalability of videos, figuring out how to make it viral and another set of videos, which is more about nurturing the community. 98 00:11:51,000 --> 00:12:03,000 So like pushing out more more content that's only towards the people that are already following us and and like directing them to our websites. 99 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:12,000 And obviously, these ones are the ones that are not like performing well, but doesn't mean that even though it's not a lot of views doesn't mean that it's not converting. 100 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:18,000 That's the main thing, the converting or whatever the purpose or desired outcome is. 101 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,000 That's the goal. But a lot of people think reaches the important thing are the numbers. 102 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,000 But you're right. Converting is that big deal, because as a business, you want clients. 103 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:29,000 Exactly. I mean, a lot of people are selling views. 104 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:49,000 They would be like, yeah, I can make more videos with more views. And for me, that's not just the views that I'm of course, I'm selling views, but that's not all I'm selling this strategy of how to actually bring more people into your website and or more people to converse with you, depending on what is your your what is your goal as well. 105 00:12:49,000 --> 00:13:06,000 You know, I have some brands where they don't really need more sales, but they need more community, more people to know about them. So a lot. So then I'm pushing out more content that makes people talk in the comments as well, you know, and we're using that comments actually to create more content in the future. 106 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:11,000 So it's like it's a good thing, actually. It's it's a great effect you're causing. Absolutely. 107 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:21,000 When people want to reach out to you to get the effect of social media, where do they find you? Normally they found me on my TikTok and on my Twitter. 108 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:35,000 And these are for econ brands, usually. And I'm also very active on LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is more for people and founders who want to improve their personal brand on TikTok. I also do some consultations. 109 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:43,000 And, yeah, a lot of I'm more or less everywhere, but those are the three main main platforms that I'm using. 110 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:47,000 Do you have a consistent handle across all platforms or do people just know you, Marie? 111 00:13:47,000 --> 00:14:06,000 Sorry. My my candle is Guma Mela Studios. That is a G-U-M-A-M-E-L-A Studios. I had to also make sure. Is that correct? Guma Mela is the name of the hibiscus flower in my home country in the Philippines. 112 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:18,000 And it's something that I've been using all throughout. So if you find Marie with a flower, that's most probably going to be me. And it's it's also in line with my branding, which is like the island girl in marketing. 113 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:28,000 I'm always the island girl. You've talked about this outside of the podcast. Like I love surfing. It's something that I can see myself all the time. And I also bring the island vibes whenever you work with me. 114 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:45,000 It's great that you take a piece of your home country with you, even on the digital space, which is really cool. I love that, too. If you want, I'll put it to everything in the show notes, your website, your Instagram's all the handles across the social so people can find the island girl without having to put in too much effort. 115 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,000 Don't want to get lost on the way to the island. 116 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:53,000 Well, they were more than welcome to visit me in my island. It's always something that I love doing. 117 00:14:53,000 --> 00:15:01,000 I'll visit as long as you don't make me stand on my head doing anything else. I'd be up for it. I can teach you. Awesome. 118 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,000 I you need a lot of patience, but we could try. That's okay. 119 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:23,000 You talked a bit about LinkedIn, about founders and business people. But is there besides a stuffy, I have a suit and I need to be a bit of artificial, it seems, and be a guru. Is there any kind of specific vibe that you see LinkedIn moving to or that is right now? 120 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:35,000 LinkedIn changes a lot. And I've been on LinkedIn for less than a year, but more or less 10 months already. And most of the time, I'm just like lurking. I'm figuring out what's the best way. 121 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:47,000 Obviously, having to make content for LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter and Instagram is a lot of work. So sometimes I'm like, okay, let me just like look into LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a lot of I absolutely love LinkedIn. 122 00:15:47,000 --> 00:16:03,000 Actually, it's it's forget about your idea of what LinkedIn was back in 2017 2018. Because it's completely different. It's right now my whole feed is just filled with absolutely, absolutely chunks of gold nuggets. 123 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:19,000 I learned more about AI by my LinkedIn friends than I do just, you know, going on YouTube or going on on Facebook. I learned a lot more about copyright thing, which is something that I I need more for myself as well. 124 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:36,000 Reading posts on LinkedIn, and it changes a lot back in early early 2023. A lot of posts about LinkedIn about your personal life, you know, like just me like loving yoga and loving surfing. 125 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:45,000 Those are the ones that are actually performing well, whereas now what's performing more is something that is indeed related to your niche and related to what you're working on. 126 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:52,000 Which is actually hard for me because I have two different businesses. One is this marketing agency and the other is this retreat business that I'm making. 127 00:16:52,000 --> 00:17:05,000 So I'm kind of like putting more about the personal life for the retreats as my passion project and I'm like, LinkedIn algorithm, please make sure that it's related to the work that I'm doing. 128 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:17,000 But yeah, this is the things that are working. These are the things that are working right now. A lot about like how to post as well. A lot of like cheat sheets are working really well right now. 129 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:26,000 So make sure that if you're to start on LinkedIn right now, figure out a way to give value and actionable value to the community. 130 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:35,000 Awesome. So it's going in the right direction, which is great to see. And there is a lot more personal information. Try to be relatable. 131 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:43,000 I think after the pandemic, people just need to be more digitally aware, be networky or businessy or whatever it is or be more human. 132 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:55,000 And those hot tips or secrets or even personal stories came out. Even if it is surfing or yoga or you see somebody kooky, quirky Canadian like me posting a camel. 133 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:04,000 On a Wednesday because I want to entertain myself. And if everybody wants to join me, that's great. If not, then at least I'm having a good time. A good time though. 134 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:12,000 Exactly. Right now I'm just bringing a lot of people together in real life meetup. 135 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:23,000 So a lot of the things are really resonating with people because obviously we are the ones who got stuck in our rooms during pandemic, building up our own businesses. 136 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:31,000 And now post pandemic, we're still by ourselves normally, you know, lacking some connections with other entrepreneurs. 137 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:39,000 So a lot of people are actually really interested in like meeting up. And it's all because of the posts that we've been doing on LinkedIn. 138 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:53,000 The media is a little more cautious about Twitter. And I don't know if people on Twitter are networking as much because of the posts, but the media really thinks of Twitter as a dumpster fire. 139 00:18:53,000 --> 00:19:05,000 And I wondered if you have resonated with Twitter, what your thoughts of it are without going too far into the political space and maybe kind of get the vibe if it's a good spot to be in or not. 140 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:14,000 Great. I would say I'm actually in that to Twitter because it was the start of my freelance career. 141 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:21,000 I got a lot of clients through there because my target audience were e-com business owners and ad agencies. 142 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:29,000 So the e-com business owners, the ad agency owners, they're all there on Twitter and they have their own world. They have their own bubble. 143 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:34,000 Same goes as content creators, UGC creators having their own bubble on Twitter as well. 144 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:42,000 And right now I'm actually having a hard time trying to rebrand because I used to be Marie the UGC creator. 145 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:48,000 And now I want to be more than just a UGC creator. I actually have my own agency as well. 146 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:57,000 And in terms of like the things that we love about Twitter, it's still there and it still gives a lot of opportunities. 147 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:05,000 It has a lot of ways to network as well because it's kind of like a community as well. 148 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:11,000 So if you're looking for ad agency owners, the best way, go to Twitter. If you're looking for creators, the best way, go to Twitter. 149 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:22,000 But in terms of creating like genuine connections, I would say Twitter is my least favorite. 150 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:36,000 Just because people are easy, because a tweet lifespan is around, it could vary from 30 minutes to just four hours, maybe even more if it gets viral. 151 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:43,000 But because the Twitter lifespan is so short compared to an Instagram one or compared to a TikTok one, 152 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:52,000 people are less aware and less intentional about the effects of what they're posting. 153 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:57,000 So a lot of rants, a lot of negative energy. 154 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:09,000 I'm not saying that it needs to be a place of butterflies and rainbows, you know, but it is something in that way. 155 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:18,000 So if people want to go on Twitter, they have to understand that that is the kind of audience or the kind of content that they're consuming. 156 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:24,000 And me being in the spiritual side as well and telling you I'm like a yoga teacher, 157 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:34,000 I know that like consuming a lot of this negative energy, you would also have to get it out of your system in some way. 158 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:45,000 So unless you're really mindful about your thoughts and your actions, those negative energy can also affect you a whole lot more than you think. 159 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:50,000 Hence, I have those things. Opportunity-wise, it's there. 160 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:57,000 But to which extent, it's only up to you to figure out. 161 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,000 Have you had a chance to figure out threads? 162 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:05,000 Have you even bothered to jump on there? Being an Instagram, it's easy to hop on, right? 163 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:14,000 I did. I did. Yeah, I did for a few three days. 164 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,000 It's technically still banned in Europe. Oh, yeah. 165 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:24,000 But considering that I did have my Apple Store in Canada and everything's still there, so it was easy. 166 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:29,000 I'm one of the few people from Europe, you know, who actually have access to threads. 167 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:38,000 It was amazing on the first few days because everybody just didn't really know how to navigate this app. 168 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:45,000 And everybody was just genuine. There was a lot of like really funny, relatable content. 169 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:52,000 And even for brands, you would see really like the social media managers of brands who are actually killing it. They're really great. 170 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:59,000 And right now, I think I've it's not that I stopped it. 171 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:09,000 It's just because life happened that I'm just like figuring out and focusing more on where my community is, hence focusing still more on Twitter. 172 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:18,000 And I would I love to consider myself as an early adopter, but I'm not so sure of also like where these are. 173 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:25,000 These things are going right now. Facebook, on the other hand, has been around since I think dinosaurs ruled the earth. 174 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:30,000 I mean, 2007 when I start. So I'm pretty much a dinosaur in Facebook terms. 175 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:38,000 Is it done? Is it is it gone or is there still appetite for, you know, digital creators and businesses to hop on board? 176 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:44,000 Yeah, absolutely. I would say I was one of those people who deleted my Facebook. 177 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:57,000 But then afterwards, I came back. Reason being is the Facebook is absolutely amazing for communities who for millennials up, even for agencies, actually, 178 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:10,000 because there is already an existing platform to create groups, to search for groups, you know, case in point, kind of like the place, the name of the place, then digital nomads, 179 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:21,000 because these are the communities that I want to be part of. So I would usually search for Valencia Digital Nomads or Toronto Digital Nomads or something along those lines of groups. 180 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:32,000 There is a UGC community group with 30000 people from all over the world. And people are also people are also working with each other there. 181 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:41,000 I'm part of a fractional CMO group in Facebook. And ironically, everybody there is like, I don't like Facebook, but here we are. 182 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:49,000 Right. Because Facebook is the starting point, the kickoff point for a an easier platform to go through. 183 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:56,000 Facebook, I would say, is also still working, it's working hard to get the better user experience. 184 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:04,000 My favorite is still always Slack or Discord. But Facebook is there for searchability. 185 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:14,000 Glad you said Discord, because Discord is only something a lot of people think, especially if I'm in LinkedIn or business communities, they're not techie. 186 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:24,000 They think it's for gamers and this weird thing that their kids do while they're on Xbox. What's the benefit to go into Discord beside just communities? 187 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:29,000 Is there something else I should be looking for? Box. 188 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:37,000 I mean, and I'm absolutely, I am absolutely a big fan of Discord. I'm a big fan of Discord and Slack. They're more or less the same. 189 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:45,000 I would say Slack is more towards the professional side, whereas Discord is more on the you can just easily customize a lot of things on Discord. 190 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:56,000 I'm a moderator of a group with like 30,000 people and bots are just easy because it automates a lot of things. It automates spam filters. 191 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:06,000 It automates also accepting people in the group, figuring out, for example, if you come into the group, a bot would already give you some messages. 192 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:16,000 You have verification to do and at the same time you can group people, for example, grouping people by countries or grouping people by however, 193 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:23,000 like giving them a tag, let's say, of like which country they're from or what specialty they are. 194 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:29,000 And it's also a sort of instant messaging feature because obviously, like when someone chats there, 195 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:40,000 you can like the people in that community can either have their push notifications on and it has an easy way to actually get to actually get information as fast as possible. 196 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:49,000 So those ones in terms of support, in terms of community building for me, Discord is a great tool to have. 197 00:26:49,000 --> 00:27:00,000 I suppose if somebody's creating a Patreon account and this is an extra community, Discord would be probably pretty easy, pretty good to set up so you can manage those paid subscriptions and stuff 198 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:09,000 when people come into the community, join. Or if you're just a nerd like me, if it's like you, Marie, if you have time for Dungeon Dragons and Theater of the Mind, 199 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:20,000 a lot of Discord bots come in handy to roll dice and other things and explore. So, guilty, that's my pleasure at home, but that works really well. 200 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:30,000 So we've covered all the platforms pretty good. If I'm just starting out, whether it's a digital creator or business, what should I be starting to plan? 201 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,000 What should I be thinking about first? If we can kind of wrap it up with that. 202 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:40,000 Yeah, sure. So let's start as a digital creator because that is a completely different thing as well. 203 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:46,000 So when you're a digital creator, the first thing you have to do is find the problem in the market, right? 204 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:58,000 And that's also the reason why I started. I actually started as having... I was lucky enough that when I started, I didn't really know my offers and I didn't really know what to offer to clients, 205 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:03,000 but they came to me. But now it's completely different, obviously. So find the problem in the market. 206 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:08,000 Don't create a problem in the market, which is a lot of what a lot of people are starting to do. 207 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:20,000 Start, find a problem and figure out how you can help them. Once you know how you can help them, create a portfolio of their videos, similar to what you would propose to them. 208 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:30,000 And if you can, get some results from the videos that you've made. If you don't have any results, get testimonials. 209 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:40,000 If you don't have, I would actually consider working pro bono to get these because that's the easiest way. 210 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:49,000 But only for clients that you believe that you want to work with. You're not working for free. You're working for passion. 211 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:58,000 So those as a creator is something that you really... Like for me, when I started as a creator as well, 212 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:03,000 one of the things that really jumped up on me is because I actually worked with Snapchat. 213 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:11,000 And I was like, you know, even if I wasn't paid, I know that this will help me a lot. And it did. 214 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:20,000 I also interned with some agencies and I learned a lot from them. And even though monetary wise, I didn't get a lot, 215 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:32,000 but the amount of knowledge that I got and the amount of credibility that I got working for them was a big thing. 216 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:38,000 So those are the small things that you can do as a starting point coming from zero to one. 217 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:44,000 Obviously, when you're at one, you slowly go to two, you slowly go to three, four, five. 218 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:50,000 Maybe you'll end up at 32 and you're plateauing. And when you feel that you're plateauing, 219 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:58,000 what I would suggest really is coming from experience is to find a mentor or find a coach that can help you, 220 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:04,000 like that can help you even go further. I know when you're starting out and you're going from zero to one, zero to ten, 221 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000 it's hard to invest in something. A lot of freelancers, a lot of people who are just starting out, 222 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:14,000 they don't get this idea of like in order to earn more money, they need to spend more money. 223 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:24,000 I was one of those people as well. But now I just realized that like the connections and the wisdom I get from my coaches 224 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,000 is so much more invaluable than how much I'm paying them. 225 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:35,000 And now you don't have to spend your time pulling your hair out or scratching your head or whatever it is you do 226 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:41,000 as stress relief to struggle through the learnings and the growth, right? 227 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:48,000 You can accelerate all that, get all that knowledge in a short period of time. So you go back to earning and celebrating you. 228 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:57,000 Exactly. I mean, really like when you're coming from, when you're leveling up, you won't ever stop having problems. 229 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,000 It's just that your problems will be different. My problems before were getting clients. 230 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:06,000 And my problems now is actually how to accommodate more clients. 231 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:12,000 And then maybe in the future, my problems would be also like how to build a bigger team. 232 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:19,000 So it has different problems, but you have to figure out which ones can help you in different aspects of your life. 233 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,000 And whether you're a podcast or digital creator or something in between, 234 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:29,000 have all the skills that the Island Girl shares with us, all the socials we understand what to do, 235 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:33,000 the approaches that we should take and then what to do in starting out. 236 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:39,000 I think you've helped accelerate everyone's dream to come true now with all your secrets. 237 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:46,000 And now we'll make sure that people come to you for help when they're ready to pay that mentor for the, 238 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:51,000 of the plateau-ness that you can offer. So thanks for all this, Marie. This has been awesome. 239 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:57,000 Do you have any wise words, final words of wisdom for everyone to take on? 240 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:03,000 Yes, always. I would say, I have so many, let me check. 241 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:09,000 But right now, based on what I'm feeling and also what a lot of people are feeling, 242 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:15,000 the best thing for me is don't bring yourself out working for a client that will never care about you. 243 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:21,000 So I'm not saying that I have a client that doesn't care about me now, but at the same time, 244 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:30,000 it's just figuring out a balance of what you're working out and what you want your life to be. 245 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:34,000 And you're, remember that you're the creator of your own life. 246 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:40,000 So you're the one in charge of your time and you're the one in charge of how your life will turn out. 247 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:45,000 So I think you should start yourself first and your happiness. Well said, Marie. 248 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:50,000 Thank you so much for your time. And now people have the power to start a podcast market 249 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:54,000 and do all the things they've dreamed of. And if they need help, they know where to find the Island Girl too. 250 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:59,000 All in the show notes, just for you. Thanks again for your time. Appreciate this, Marie. This has been great. 251 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:00,000 Thanks so much. 252 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:10,000 Thank you, my daughter podcast.