The Ultimate TikTok Guide by JT Barnett: From Beginner to Stardom

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0:11[Music] [Music] people are listening to this on audio get on YouTube because you're wearing sunglasses I think you're the first person on the show to wearing sunglasses I feel today I felt like bringing the heat uh and I felt that I had these glasses and I was like I feel like the glasses give me a little bit of a mood for my day um and so I was like you know what I'm gonna bring the [ __ ] heat today I'm gonna wear the glasses I'm wearing them everywhere and tonight I'm going to talk at USC and I'm gonna wear them there too all right well

1:04as much as I brought you on here for your fashionista Vibes which are a plus the number one reason I brought you on is you are a wealth of knowledge a Fountain of Knowledge when it comes to creators there's a shift between thought leaders being on a pedestal talking down to you to now thought leaders talking directly to you at eye level get closer to yourself put blinders on listen to your own intuition and follow that not to go and find the person that I think that I am but to get close to the person that I know that I've always been by letting go of the parts of me that I know that I'm

1:39not how to build audiences how to build businesses on top of it I want to talk to you about it thank you I appreciate that and yeah I'm excited to talk about that maybe we can start with what are you seeing on Tick Tock to start with like what are some accounts that are are blowing up like what are Trends on Tick Tock a lot of people here want to create an account wanna go viral uh algorithm changing all the time what are you seeing out in the transit trenches um I think uh the first thing that I always go to is is storytelling because I I I I don't

2:23like to encourage people to do Trends because I think that Trends are fleeting that's not Trends are not a sustainable model for people to use in perpetuity and so I always lean on tell your stories like tell your tell your own life story tell the challenges that you've been through or particularly because I think the people that are listening to this are entrepreneurial or business minded tell your company story talk about the things that you're going through or the way that you got to where you are or the ideas that got you to even starting the product um it's it's just so hard to it's so hard

3:02for to find longevity when you're just following the trend of the day and that's what Tick Tock and that's how Tick Tock became popular was literally what's popping today trends of the day and it's just hard it's just really hard to consistently follow that um so I highly recommend people to lean into something that's way more sustainable and actually cuts through the noise which is Original Stories so would you recommend people just like how would you what are Frameworks or ways to think about how to pull stories out of people because we all have stories great question great question I even I even like wrote out what I would deem the actual

3:45formula for a video I went back and looked at about 150 videos that had worked for either for me in the past or had worked for other people that I liked that it seems like the linear progression of a story which is which very well correlates to the narrative Arc of an actual story and child like that children read some sort of intro which I call a hook that captivates captivates the audience then there's some sort of setting then there's a conflict and then the conflict gets resolved and then there's a call to action so like literally if you take those five things I'll I'll say it in kind of tick

4:24tock or I even would say short form because majority of the content now is works on every any platform but a hook a setting a conflict a resolution and a call to action those are the five things that I think uh I try to incorporate in my videos and I think the call to action is dependent on what the video is there doesn't need to be a hard sell it could just be like I hope this helps it could be no wishing you a great day it could be something that easy but I I people people consume with their emotions and when you create stories it's able to

5:00get people involved emotionally um and that's what you want that's what you gets people to actually care about what you're doing so that's the formula that I try to follow in a lot of my videos so what you're saying is it's almost like ignore the trends for now just focus on writing really good stories start by writing and then how do you think of you know once I've written several stories how do you think about filming Etc the way that I the the actual like in the weeds uh process that I think everybody should try and do to make it the easiest on themselves is first write

5:42out what you're going to say then go and record it on your like voice notes so go into a an audio only draft then once you have that audio draft go and look at the words that you're saying in the video and think about is there any archival footage any camera roll footage any things that I have that are on Google any articles that I was in any footage that correlates to the words that I'm saying in this story and then go and place it over it um and then outside of that so once you have that that'll get you to probably you probably have like you know 40 of

6:21the video will be archival footage things from the past and then you look at the other words that are like that's a lot of filler content like I was sitting there you don't have a you might not have a video of you sitting on your camera roll so you go and film those filler ones and then that at the end of you filling the filming those filler ones now you have a compiled video that is completed with the audio only file b-roll filler content and then I go a step further and add text over top of it that's not necessary you could honestly do the auto

6:53text that's on Tick Tock and Instagram and all those that just works just fine but that's the formula and how do you think about a brand account versus a personal account meaning if I'm a brand like yeah you know what's the expression people follow people not Brands so how do you think about um to me it's the same yeah I think you I think you Brands need to act more like human beings for them to build followings um they need to they need we need to they need to relate to to people because that's who's consuming it um we don't go on social media and have

7:37a so in and have a a brand only social media platform and a person only social media platform you're in the same playing field as every other person in the world and every other company in the world you have to be able to cut through that noise um just showing your product here's the way that here's the way that I think people think about it versus brands when people make content they're not selling as much because they don't have a product to sell they're just like putting their [ __ ] out there they're putting their content out there hoping that somebody likes it ideally somebody does companies have a product

8:12that they've worked hard on so they approach content uh in a way of we have the best product in the market we gotta sell this people need to know about it let's push it out there and force it on onto people's uh for you Pages or timelines then as consumers when you see that you're you immediately want to swipe past it because you're like what is this like this is I'm here to watch things that actually provide me value not to get sold to if I want to get sold to I'd go walk in the mall or go on Amazon my Amazon app or let you know things like

8:42that so immediately it's an easy way for people to just want to click to the next that's why the companies that think about who they're making the content for and actually provide that end user value or the ones that are able to build audiences so I think you need to be thinking more like a person does what's a non-obvious example of a brand doing really well on short form Bose really Bose yeah Bose on Tick Tock does a unique so it's easy for me to use something like Duolingo it's easy to use big ones like that I think somebody that does a really good job a company that does a

9:27really good job by creating original content that's contextual to the platform that is entertaining to watch and fits in the culture this Bose they make these original videos that are humorous that look almost like infomercials but they're not infomercials and they're like playing on the fact that they're bringing infomercials to tick tock and but they're very gen z-ish and they just do a really good job of creating and understanding the context and understanding the platform so that's a good example for you guys to look up go scroll down a little if it's not popping right now and look at some of the videos that have and it's like

10:01it's not trying they're not trying to be the coolest people in the world they're like they're they're understanding the humor of gen Z the lingo the culture how Tick Tock works and they're getting people to stop and pay attention that's right yeah and they've got they've got a lot of views like I'm looking at their pinned uh pin videos like 1.1 million 2 million 2.7 so something's working and that's a big big company now let me go smaller company for a lot of people that are listening I think the best for me for a lot of for a lot of smaller companies that are listening to this I think the

10:38best company in the world right now at doing content is midday squares I don't think there's anybody that comes even close to them um in terms of Storytelling in an organic way and knowing the end consumer and understanding the context of the platforms um they invest heavily into their content they know that it's something that's going to drive the business and I I don't see any other brands taking it as serious as them and that's why they're disrupting that industry that's why they're making a dent um is because people see their content and go oh [ __ ] when is this and then they back it up with having a good

11:13product and I think that those two things together are a recipe for some real damage and that's what people should be looking at so Nick's aldarelli who's uh the CEO has been on the show before I grew up with those guys so uh oh cool are you Canadian all right yeah I am nice that's awesome yeah so they've basically gone from zero to almost 20 million a year in revenue on their chocolate bar which is highly competitive category right so they started that and it's like how do you compete against Hershey's um and some of these Brands like you have to stand out and they've thought about what's really

11:57interesting about midday squares I think is when you buy a midday square like at the back of the package like you see the founders faces then it feels like it feels like you're you know you're kind of I guess they're what I'm trying to say is they're a creator-born brand from the start it's in their DNA yeah but the interest but the the caveat to that is they weren't creators they turned themselves into creators because they understood what would happen if they did and how that could be such a um such ammunition to what they were trying to accomplish and it's paid off really nicely and I think that a big

12:38thing that I think I think that that is the play I think for majority of people especially with what we're seeing today the creator-led brands that are popping with feastables and things that I'm a Chamberlain's coffee and all that that are like that that come into the market and immediately disrupt it's because they already have an audience because people like them as human beings and as creators so I think that companies that are starting today or even companies that aren't starting companies that are out of place right now where they're trying to disrupt the easiest way for you to disrupt is to actually get people to genuinely care about what you're

13:10doing then I go what's the easiest way to do that how do you get somebody to care about it's not going to be going and standing around at a mall it's gonna be going where everybody's consuming that is our phones that is social media that are the FL that is the platforms that we're on in spending majority of our days on our majority of our time on and learning how to execute there so I think the companies that really understand content will be the ones that disrupt the most granted you have to have a product that backs it up but for the most part I think that the biggest play

13:42to even get your foot in the door is through content I'll tell you the story of the company before midday square is that went nowhere which cool obviously isn't talked about so I actually had an idea for a Candle Company focused on men I chatted about it with um this guy Casey Carls who's Jake carls's uh brother Leslie and Jay Carl's started midday squares with Nick and basically I bought a third of the company and Jake was the CEO of the company and and the other two-thirds were owned by the Carl's we spent a bunch of money on this like really funny video that was supposed to be the launch

14:27of it right it was around the time this is like 20 I don't know 16 or 17. um it was around the time where it was like kickstarters were really big and the idea was if you could have like a really funny video It's Gonna spread across the internet so we spent all this time building this this video all this energy posted it got no sales and through that I think Jake learned that it's not about spending you know creating one video a year basically it's about creating one video an hour and building a brand for yourself close that company then they did midday squares and I think

15:08it's interesting yeah that's the story of that it's it totally makes sense to me because it's very in line with the brands that we work with or that we get on conversations with that are like how do we go viral and for me virality is such a fleeting thing for people because one going viral a single time for something that you don't actually care about is actually detrimental to your business into your algorithm as a platform because now all of your new content is going to be shown to that audience that isn't the actual audience that you're trying to go after so that's one thing but second is the real

15:51relationships that you're trying to build with your community aren't built in one video they aren't built from the single video that the person saw they're built from the videos that they see after that one video the smaller ones that don't pop off that you think didn't do anything because they got four five six seven thousand views but they trickled into the people that now actually care about you and those are the community that you're trying to really build with and that's the way that I look at it and that's why I was posting three times a day for a while on Tick Tock because the videos that would not pop would be the

16:26ones that people would message me and be like yo I really filled this one this one actually impacted me and those are the people that will show up to meet up or will buy the product virality is something that I think confuses a lot of people um and so that totally makes sense to me yeah I mean my first question was basically to you on this interview was how to go viral and I kind of half expected you to be like you shouldn't want yeah you shouldn't want to go viral like virality is a bad word in our world yeah you know you want to go viral

16:59when as a byproduct you have yeah exactly virality as a byproduct virality as a byproduct of putting out the content you genuinely want to put out is a home run virality as a means of just saying you went viral is I don't know what's an analogy for something that's terrible that can ruin your business I mean it's bad PR yeah it's just not it's just it's just not where I think people should be thinking I I look at it like this here's the way I look at all content it's a relationship when you go and you meet people when you move to a new city and you're trying to

17:39make friends you don't hang out with somebody one time and be like we're the best of friends you're gonna be in my wedding I love you I'll show up anywhere it takes time you have to put in repetitions you have to communicate you have to have like-minded interests you have to care for that person you have to like you have to build that's the same thing as an audience we get on conversations with people they're like look we have a month and a half where our team is investing we're ready to go if this doesn't work in a month and a half though our CFO or

18:06our team is we're pulling this we're not doing Tick Tock anymore not doing Instagram anymore we need content to work ASAP I'm I look at it I'm like this you need to build for you need to build for years you need to be building for a long period of time you're trying to build relationships well it's the same it's it's very similar to like how SEO works you know SEO isn't something that you know you change a few meta tags on your website and all of a sudden you're gonna get a hundred thousand people to your website tomorrow you invest in SEO because I mean you

18:39literally use the word invest because when you know you're constantly climbing up the rankings for these keywords that work and that you want and then at a certain point you're just you know 12 months from now sitting on a beach and people are just showing up to your website regardless and that's the same thing with social in general which is people have this expectation that you know I don't get a hundred thousand Twitter followers and I'll get a hundred thousand Instagram followers this you know this video doesn't get a million views or a hundred thousand views or even a thousand views I should just like quit

19:13and like the way I see it is it's very much like r d marketing r d you should look at it as like I have a mark you know with r d you set a budget 18 months 24 months let's go figure out an invention or let's go experiment that's the exact same way people should look at being a Creator and creating content is it's r d you figure out like what content works why it works while you're building the product um and then hopefully you don't go viral on day one hopefully you go viral on month 14. love it completely agree am I hired at your company yeah

19:54welcome what what does your company do um so we're we're all things content but the things that we specialize in is short form organic so we'll either consult on your current scene that you already have and we'll teach you guys how to improve your videos write stories create the content in-house uh for select few we don't do this for everybody for a select few will actually edit the content ourselves like we'll take your story we'll make it ourselves um and hand it back to you and then the second kind of area that we work on is we go into companies and build their content arm for them so it's really hard

20:29to find creators that want to come and work for companies what do people do when they try and find people that they want to hire they go on LinkedIn they go on indeed they search content creator I'm a content creator I know a thousand content creators not one of them would go and put their job profile on LinkedIn or or on upwork and be looking for jobs there so it's just not the they don't you don't find creators in that same typical way that you would find other employees you find them through the platforms and so what I've done is started making videos talking about is

21:00there anybody on here that would want to work for a company that would actually want to go in and run their account and not like one video a month or two videos a month like an influencer like literally you're with their team every day making content or every couple days making contact lo and behold I got 1500 people overnight that wanted to do that now that's turned into seven thousand so we have like a database of these creators that want to go and work with companies so we'll go into we will go into businesses and actually employ these people like we'll we'll introduce them to the team the team will hire to the

21:31company the company will hire them um as contractors or as employees and then we'll work with them to like get set up and like make sure that they're good and then that person will go and run the account make content for the business um manage it Community manage um and now we're and we'll continue to just kind of build on that so we'll now we're kind of starting to do where we'll find a creative director that will help with ideas for that company too sometimes we'll do a little social media manager we'll help with just the posting but they're not actually filming as much so all things content

22:03um within companies and like what's an example of a company that you work with and like what have you done with them uh super coffee so I mean companies that we found creators for we found big and small we've found we've done that kind of like internal recruiting for big companies like Nissan Sketchers Best Western uh but also smaller companies not smaller necessarily or smaller but not the smallest poppy super coffee belly Welly um a lot of cpg ones like that um almond cow um so all different sizes I would say our biggest criteria is cpg Le or New York based Health a little bit better

22:49for you or impact driven um is like the criteria that I think we specialize in but we go across the board super coffee we did both edited content for them help them build out their storylines if you ever see any of their videos where their Founders are talking about how they built the business how it happened in their college dorm we like storyboard that come up with the storyline The Arc of it film it edit it hand it back to them um and then we find them we found them a Creator too who does more man on the street stuff so he'll go and interview people

23:23um talk to people at schools talk to people around the city that they're located in so yeah do you ever okay so I run in I run multiple agencies and as someone who runs agencies every agency owner asks themselves should I be Building Product constantly right so in your case um could should you be creating a cpg brand like if you are able to build a lot of attention on social it's like all the only missing piece that you have is what is the product and the operational arm to it right like the actual like manufacturing fulfillment like at the midday Square guys how hard it like how

24:13hard it is to do that they built a a factory factory um yeah but you know does that interest you at all like yeah I will do that to a studio yeah I will do that um the thing the the long-term plan for me will be to build my audience as a Creator to the point where I feel like it has the leverage to launch a product through it and the product that I will launch through it will be purely based off of the community and their needs and the things that they feel like need to be innovated so if my audience continues to be creators or people in the creative

24:48world that are business-minded that are trying to get into content and they're like we hate our tripods or we hate our you know ring lights um and I have an audience that's a big enough size and I feel like that the market needs to be disrupted I will go into research and development and build a product to fit that need and then that's what I'll launched through my audience I don't have the I don't feel compelled to do that yet because one I think you need to have a bigger audience than I have and I'm not saying that I have a small one but I just think you

25:16need multiple hundreds of thousands on multiple platforms to really have that be the be an um immediate distribution to make a dent so I see this I'm seeing there's a lot of creators that I know personally and just the way that they're launching products and doing it well I think you need I think you need a sizable number so I'm building towards that and then when I get there uh I'll launch products through it and the agency arm that we have right now of all content and stuff will not transition into working for that brand but it will really help it will be the thing that kind of like Powers a

25:53quick Interruption from me if you're listening to this on Apple podcast or Spotify you're getting any value you need to come to YouTube and subscribe to the where it happens podcast YouTube channel I promise you the experience is richer more interesting so if you're getting any value just stop what you're doing open up the YouTube app go to the website and press subscribe at where it happens on YouTube and if you're watching this on YouTube and you haven't subscribed what are you doing go go press subscribe thank you enjoy the rest of the show what are some non-obvious creators like personal creators not bows like people

26:43people that are the future Mr Beast or Emma chamberlains of the world that you're like well you know let me keep a tab on that Creator because like they're gonna be doing big things the future Mr Beast I think is the future of Mr Beast I think is really hard because Mr Beast is more of an anomaly that people think um explain so many yes so many creators and so many business folk think that there will be more Mr Beast and that the next kid coming up is gonna be the next Mr Beast Mr Beast is is is literally an anomaly the amount of work that he puts in what he's built

27:22what he's been able to achieve and the timing that he's been able to do it um have all created a perfect storm for him I think that there will be the next sizable person like Mr Beast won't be in the style of him at all it'll be completely different because he's created a whole wave of this fast cut um attention span kind of error that I think now there's so many smaller creators that ever trying to replicate it that I think it will almost burn it out and I think the next style will be something completely different um that somebody will build through so there I don't think there will be

28:03another Mr Beast of his size plus the business that he has behind it with the team that he has is a bunch of savages they're incredible at what they do um and so I I just think that he's an anomaly so people that I think that you are that individuals should look at I really think that female lifestyle influencers and creators will build enormous businesses because women support each other more than men do women buy into other women's content way more than men buy into other men's contact in women lifestyle creators show a lot more than business people do so inherently the relationship that they have With Their audience is deeper

28:50if you pair a lifestyle Creator in the in a female Niche with a business minded individual that wants to come in and help them really build I think we will see a lot of companies come through that that will do damage and I'll give you an example of one that's doing that right now it's Bloom nutrition Bloom supplements with Mari Llewellyn I think her last name is Mari has built a big audience then built a supplement company around greens that helped her throughout her journey of Health and Wellness um now they are in Walmart disrupting the whole category in Walmart Nationwide and it's all done through her own

29:32personal accounts and through them building a community around her and her life um so I think that she does a great job and again it's it's pairing that creator with smart business people her husband and their team are smart people my fiance is another good example she's done a great job of building she launched her own Fitness platform they're bawling they're doing really really well I have I am not part of that at all so I can't take any credit but she just documents she shows her life people care about that and women support women and I I think that there will be a lot more people like that realm that'll

30:08be more realistic I have a quick story about that actually so right before I uh clicked record on this my girlfriend asked me hey who are you interviewing for the Pod and then I said your name and then and then she goes oh I've seen that guy because I am a subscriber to um I'm subscribed to the to your wife's platform that's awesome tell her thank you um yeah it's been I mean I'm proud I'm really proud of her it's been really cool to see her build um she does a fantastic job of cultivating community in that same in that same realm of just like putting in

30:52repetitions and it not being an overnight thing like she's been doing this for probably six years now seven years now and she was creating content like she wasn't selling anything for a long time for sure yeah she was fir she first was she was creating content on Instagram then on YouTube and then she was on a platform called um uh fit plan so she was a trainer on fit plan and then she realized wait a minute I would like to actually start my own things and she started her own thing and now it's doing well and now they're branching into different um Realms of actual tangible goods

31:24rather than just a an app um but they're doing a good job and they and that's an example of like a another female that I think has built community and then leverage that to build products through so I I think that we'll see a lot more people in that world rather than the anomalies of somebody like a Mr Beast but when you say like lifestyle female lifestyle like what does that really mean right like you have to don't you have to Niche down a little bit lifestyle is a niche health and lifestyle is a niche people follow people follow people literally just to see what their morning routine looks

32:04like and what they do during their day and what they're eating and what the the stuff that is mundane to you and I is interesting in to some people somewhere so like when I say to get more particular when I say lifestyle what I mean directly is probably a little more Health and Wellness skewing Health and Wellness creators individuals bloggers YouTubers whatever um and the reason why I think that they do a good job is because typically most health and wellness creators have struggled with something in their life that has led them to this journey of health and wellness and they share that and so the audience buys into that and

32:47then the audience goes on the journey with them which is the same formula that I think businesses should follow literally talk about most people start with a pain Point most people start with building their company because some should happen to them or a friend of theirs or their kid they saw something they start with a pain point they realize something needs to change and they go and they take action and then they get to that point where they're making change on that that's the kind of things that I think people should really be talking about and documenting the same way these health and wellness creators do because that's what gets

33:20people to actually buy into the mission and want to support it um so that's what I'm trying that's what I try to do in my content is just like show people what I'm doing and talk about it and actually listen to them and if there's anything that they would want to see more of I try and provide more of that yeah I think I want to emphasize one point you said which is really start with the mission right like if you you start with the mission you be consistent about content you find your own voice in terms of the type of content that you know you create

33:54you use this uh uh Arc narrative that you talked about earlier and then you just show up every day you know I I like to say like you know obviously you know Gary vaynerchuk his jab jab hook model I'm kind of like I believe in the jab jab jab jab jab jab jab bottle you know you just keep jabbing and giving value um and give value give value give value all around this mission um and lifestyle and if you keep doing that over time you're gonna understand a lot of these pain points then you'll be able to build stuff for those pain points fully agree um

34:40yeah but I I think it's continuing to just give and then ask and then ask which I think is actually Gary's which is actually I think the end of his thing is rather than give give take I think it's ask um yeah in terms of uh just going back to Mr Beast I had a friend of mine sent me something really interesting I'm curious your perspective on he said that he had analyzed the top 1 000 best performing Mr Beast tick tocks across the platform every month and found that 15 months ago the average length of these videos was 28 seconds it is now 40 seconds a 43 increase feels like a it

35:28feels a lot like 2017 YouTube when the YouTube algorithm started pushing videos with higher uh avd average video duration what do you think about that I don't know longer content or yes for sure yes for sure yes but longer meaning what like I do I think that people just want to sit for 35 40 minutes no do I think people are when I think people really are craving right now is content that doesn't make them have a huge spike in their dopamine and be like an addicting every three seconds they're seeing something new that's popping up so I that's why I think that they're that's why I think

36:11that the videos are going a little bit longer now because people are keeping in more pauses and more ums and less like the formula for the past while has been cut out everything that isn't fast-paced bad end noise add in uh text so that your eyes are going and following it all over and you're never able to click away um I think that us as consumers will crave more I don't even want to say still less but just more slower paced content um and so that would be my take on that I don't think that Jimmy and their team is making content longer just for the

36:50sake of making it longer I think it's probably the videos that they're doing now are probably needing and requiring that length for them to make a cut um rather than it being a shorter one with just the videos that they're doing now um yeah let's keep going um if you're a Creator and you want to get started on or if you if you want to do if you want to do short form like what's your creator stack because there is in terms of like what tools do you use yeah when you're working with brands um besides the obvious Tick Tock Instagram whatever yeah that but that's

37:30just the distribution to on the actual back end uh the ideas start in my notes and then when I and I'm just writing things that pop in my head all day then they go from my notes to notion which is where we have everything that's actually stored and housed so then they actually get formulated a little bit deeper in notion with the team and then once they're in notion um which is where the script will come from all usually either film that script looking into the camera or I will voice over or voice note um that script in My Voice Memos app on my phone um

38:09that gets uploaded to the cloud uh this is iCloud drive so me and my this is actually something I haven't shared with anybody this is actually like this is some [ __ ] that I think people need to think more of um rather than using a Google drive or Dropbox or anything like that me and my video team have a shared iCloud so on your actual iPhone when you're filming you can save rather than uploading it anywhere you can save to files which you could have a collaborative folder in so when I film a video I save it to there that goes immediately onto my editor's

38:46computer so as soon as I'm done I text him that it's in that folder you can even send a link um and then he gets to work on it so I go I have voice notes um if I'm actually editing the video myself I'm doing it in cap cut so I have cap cut on my phone I have cap cut on my computer that's the platform that I edit most of my content in my editor is using Final Cut or Adobe Premiere I'm not a computer guy I do literally 100 of my edits are from my phone so anything you've ever seen that from me hasn't

39:17been done on a phone um so I'll edit on cap cut and then the way that I do and then if I'm writing anything out like for LinkedIn it's using later that's the tech platform that I'm using for that it's scheduling um and then and then I distribute so that's usually what I do I film everything on my camera I don't film on Tick Tock I don't film my cap cut for the most part it's all filmed on my camera brought into these platforms edited voice over compiled together and then uploaded what you're watching right now is the day in the life of a Creator who

39:50runs his own company in Los Angeles and loves doing it the goal of all that you see me doing is to help people like yourself realize that you can build a business around the things that you're interested in by making contact and so that's what we do I have a great little team we use notion and I've got to give myself the best chance of success like using this tripod which you guys need to check out and then I jump on meetings I wouldn't want it any other way I love connecting with people and I'm super grateful for it midday break about content I created a workflow to upload

40:15things to an editor so I'm not doing it all but I will bore you with that and then back to meetings for a couple hours did I mention that I don't eat anything until about 3 pm I intermittent fast I love it I just do coffee and build out three the answer Summer's boss is on LinkedIn answer a few more emails and then when the Sun goes down I try to turn my lights down as well and how long does it usually take from beginning to end to create a video really depends on the video like if you look at a lot of my tick tocks a lot of my tick tocks is

40:41literally just talking to the camera those take the amount of time for me to say the words and then Auto caption them so those some of them legitimately take me 15 to 17 minutes total with captioning right hosting but you but you most know like most of them know most of the ones on Tick Tock because it's just a very off the cuff not needing to be kind of formed as much uh platform those are literally just thought comes to me I say it done so those ones can take you know let's say 30 minutes on average the ones that you're singing now that are very story and more produced where

41:18there's multiple clips over top of it visuals text all of that right now I would say the average is about two hours for one of those videos that's from me to do the voice over then to find the be the thing that takes the most time is finding the visuals I could do the voiceover pretty quickly that takes me about 15-20 minutes but going and finding visuals will be the challenge that most people will come across so we've built actually we built out a whole library now of b-roll so all footage of me doing everyday activities to put over top of these clips so that I

41:50don't have to go and refilm them every day and I can pull from them um and reuse them in little mundane moments of our of our content um but that usually was what takes the longest time and then I would say that the rest of it comes a little bit quicker probably about two and a half hours two hours is the length that it's taking for one of those did you ever use any insights tools like I use vid IQ I'm an investor in vid IQ but it I still use it it's it's I like vid IQ yeah I don't you can tell me if you don't

42:22like it by the way yeah you know no no I do like it we use we worked with it IQ that was another brand we found a creator for okay um so I I like vid IQ um I'm a fan for anything that shows you deeper insights I don't I don't value metrics um like like real deep metrics as heavily as I value my own intuition so I look at the content and see rather than looking at the number and being like oh they dropped off at 30 seconds I need to change that I look at it and I'm like do I feel like genuinely my audience is is

42:56feeling this video as a whole do I feel like the intro or this so I don't look at analytics as deeply and and look at it as truth I get I look at it as like it gives me a little bit more info later that platform that I was just telling you about gives you analytics on the back end of it so we'll look at that for LinkedIn we'll look it up for some Instagram stuff I'll look at my Instagram insights I'll look at linkedins giving you better analytics now natively on the platform so I'll look at those um Tick Tock same thing but I've I I can

43:26feel it in my body honestly I feel it when I know if things are hitting um based off of comments and the way that I feel when I'm putting out the video I can feel when it's like oh we're gonna we're in a rhythm um and on the flip side of that I can feel when it's not and I'm like we're putting out content right now but it's not really working um so yeah I base it off of that more I'm the same way I feel like I probably like if you were to ask me exactly like what's the breakdown of this podcast and you know in terms of

43:57like demographics you know I I probably wouldn't be able to tell you but when people are like tweeting at me and I love this episode and you know then I really like I feel like I've done a good job um the numbers for me don't equate to us loving a video like on my team if we have a video that has a million views and it really really popped off I'm not looking at that and being like we need to do every video like this because again in that same thing like I want it to affect the core people that I want to be in my community

44:38not necessarily just reach millions and millions of people so what I look for more is like how did we feel with this video when we put it up and do the people that are replying to us that we're hearing from that were getting feedback from do are they the people that we care about getting that feedback from and if I get feedback from my actual core demo then I'm like oh [ __ ] this was impactful if I'm getting feedback from somebody that's like yo I saw your video and it's like you're not the person that I necessarily am looking at as being somebody that's a consumer

45:10I'm like cool that's awesome that it reached you but that doesn't change that's not like changing the way that we're going into execution I want to end uh I want to end on on this your your four favorite creators who are they and why in terms of creators I really think a good example that people need to look at is Tim giusiano temperaturesiano is a dude that does uh everyday kind of Casey neistat style Vlogs on tick tock um and has built a big Community through that and is just a hell of a dude um and I really like him um the majority of them are like family

45:53creators the next one I would say is uh Daniel ciong with his family s-e-o-n-g life l-i-f-e it's young life it's literally him his wife and their kids in Irvine California a document just showing things that they do in their life and giving out tips about how they parent and what they do for their days and stuff like that um I gravitate more towards feel good content like those than like heavy hitter uh Mr B style content that's like really entertaining and engaging in like fast paced I gravitate more towards the content that I watched and it makes me feel like the way I want to feel in my

46:34day uh or makes me feel like a better person um so those two people I really like um let's think of let me try and think of a YouTube creator that I really like um YouTube I really like Colin and Samir I think that they're great at what they do um it's it I I pull a lot of my own inspiration from their uh kind of educational informational style of making information tangible and digestible and cool um and they're both really good dudes too um so I like them a lot I think that they do a really good job in terms of like mass mass viral

47:20somebody that I think will build big as well will be Ryan Trahan um who's another dude that's signed to the same management team as Mr Beast and I think he's got chops I think he's got a real personality that people should look into but dude honestly majority of the content creators that I really like and that I kick it with are smaller than I've and I have like real Niche Community it's Matt Choi a runner in Austin that has this huge running Community now um just by showing himself hating running and getting into running and I'm in that same process I hate running right now he's making me want to get

47:56into more um but just I look for authenticity I look for people that's relatable that's going back to like that's a mission relatable Mission Check Yes exactly um so yeah I I follow those kind of people that like just make me feel good that make me in a world in a world of content that wants you to just be addicted to your phone I follow people that I I spend the most time intentionally following people that I feel like add value to my day um and so yeah those are some of the people that I like someone should build like a a product hunt for this like for feel good

48:39uh up and coming creators uh who are doing cool things and building businesses on top of uh on top of them that you can get involved fully agree I wanna there might be a couple other ones too but okay give me a couple more while I have while we have you let me see really quick because I might have there might be two more that I really like um you know whose content I've actually been consuming a lot of in terms of podcasts and and again dude I people that I just think add value to my life uh Rob Dyrdek from Robin big from DC from MTV back in the day if you go

49:21listen to his podcast about how he's living his life with his with his um his family and his business and balancing all of that and I listen to it I'm like you [ __ ] give me you're giving me you're just adding more to my day you're making me feel good um and I think garyvee did a lot of that for me like when I was playing pro hockey he was one of the only dudes that I listened to I would just have one in the background and it's just like it gives you it it makes anything that makes me feel like I'm a better human being after consuming

49:50it makes me feel like okay like I'm I I like this person now and I really think people as a should go and consume midday squares because in terms of creating authentic engaging um inspiring content I think that they they are actually very legitimate creators their whole team um so they even as a fan I consume their content and I'm just like this is compelling yeah I just bought some at Whole Foods the other day so they're at Whole Foods uh here in North America and it's just it's worth it to try a lot of these products just because you'll understand a little more what this whole world means and how you

50:32can get involved so even if you're not a chocolate fan uh grab some midday squares just uh like that's what I agree like I I'm just like I have a budget for like just testing testing I love testing yeah it's why I liked it's why I liked um I almost just called it Coachella uh Expo West so much right it's why I like Expo West so much because it really is like uh it's just a testing ground for all of the who's who in cpg new things things that are popping things that are currently relevant um and so it's I have a field day going and just checking those out and I think

51:12people can literally go to Whole Foods and just pull 50 products that they enjoy go home and it's like a a Halloween sampling of candy I'm just trying new things um and that's something that we do often I've never been to Expo West what was the coolest thing that you saw there this year um the coolest thing for me was seeing friends that I know that I've gone from literally an idea in their garage to actually having a booth there and it being like fully done and looking nice and people coming up to them and supporting that was the coolest thing that I got to experience in terms of

51:48people that I think were really Innovative there that had nice booths that I think were cool booths cool ideas uh I think good olds are goodles the uh the like better for you gluten-free I think it's gluten-free macaroni and cheese that I I think is gal gadots uh company or as a part of it they had a really good setup they did a good job um trough or like trough a lot um which is the hot sauce company they Crush levels right yeah with Truffle in it poppy which is which I have to give credit to because their Booth was probably the most um appealing it was literally like just

52:35like a full retail shop in the middle of Expo so they did a really good job with it um and I just I just look at things that catch my eye that are like why are people congregating here or why is that why does this look so much different than the others um so yeah those are some of the ones that I loved so like you mentioned three or four products there like what what was it about them these products that caught your eye besides like a nicely designed booth well I think things that stand out so the way that I the way that I judge is

53:09like I see a wall of company is 50 booths and I see what ones catch my eyes so sometimes that's bright colors and unique branding sometimes that's the opposite because everything's bright colors and unique branding and there's one that's like black and liquid death looking like so I look at what stands out branding wise first then the second thing after that that I needed to do is test the product I need to actually like try the product and see if it's something that's good that I would enjoy if I enjoy the product now I'm like okay cool this is something that's legit how's the team who are the people that

53:46are involved with this who's the people that's driving this forward what's the founder like who are the other people on their team and then for me particularly I'm like are they prioritizing content what kind of content are they making if they're doing that then I feel even better about it and then the last thing for me would be like where are they sold and how much are they sold for like is it attainable is it uh is the price point Fair are they so are they already in big stores are they trying to get into big stores are they crushing it direct to Consumer are they Nationwide

54:17already like where are they those are kind of the four things that I look at um if you pass those four things for me I would bet on you I love it JT where could uh people find you on the internet uh everything's just JT Barnett JT Barnett please send me a message I appreciate all of you guys really for listening to this it's actually been a real this is a really fun vlogcast this is uh some different some different surprise you seem surprised I'm not not surprised just you appreciate you appreciate um individuals that have unique takes um because a lot of podcasts that I do

55:00are just very kind of like follow the question and here's the answer if all the question here's the answer and very kind of just brief history and then what are you doing today so I appreciate when people have their own kind of uh takes or looks or Viewpoint and they share it and then it's more conversational um so this one was really fun well you know I'm just trying to follow my curiosity and get as much tactical information from you as possible and I love that I just think that that's going to be at you know beneficial for people listening it's also beneficial for me frankly you

55:38know now I know you know you just gave me your whole Creator stack you know I'm gonna go research a lot of these products see how I can use them thinking about arcs and narratives and and writing stories I really like that um and that's why that that's why I think that your podcast has legs is because you're like you said following your own interests which then anybody that is at a similar point to you in their life now has somebody to follow that is going to be leading them into the right places whereas if you're just literally doing it just to get the who's who won and just ask them about their

56:19past and then be like cool later then it doesn't it it there's just not a there's not like a real relationship that's built within the conversation and there's less takeaways from it um and so you like prying me or or like doubling down on a question or even giving your own thoughts makes me want to go deeper into it which now your audience has like a better chance to grasp that information um so both yeah if you learn if you learn something on this pod please please hit us up on Twitter and like I said Follow You Know You Gotta See You Gotta See JT's uh sunglasses on

56:57YouTube so get off Spotify get off Apple podcast And subscribe to the YouTube channel at where it happens do it right now um and uh we'll see you soon JT thank you