Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Steve Madden's viral interview, Liv Schmidt's Skinni Société demonetised + JustJazzy wedding content

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MINI SCROLL: Steve Madden's viral interview, Liv Schmidt's Skinni Société demonetised + JustJazzy wedding content · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meissner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to mini scroll,
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  everyone. OK, before I get into it, I
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  controversial stories that I would just like never cover
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  publicly on mini. I have considered that but you
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  as well. All right, let's get into the
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  stories for today. The first story that I have for
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  you guys is we need to talk about at least this is the
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  biggest story on my for you page on my side of the Internet right
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  now. Steve Madden's multimillion
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  dollar podcast interview on Patreon.
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  So Steve Madden sat down for a long form interview on the
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  Cutting Room Floor podcast hosted by designer Rachel
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  Amandi. And the episode went over so
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  well that it has seemingly garnered millions of dollars
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  worth of sales for Steve Madden. And I actually believe it has as
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  well. Like this is kind of like an
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  Internet theory, but I subscribe to it.
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  So for context, the Cutting Room Floor is a Patreon exclusive
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  podcast. She did do the first few seasons
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  free available on Spotify and then she moved it to Patreon.
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  But when I say this podcast is going viral, so I mean the clips
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  on TikTok that have been posted are going viral.
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  And and because people are so obsessed with the actual
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  interview itself, the conversation about this episode
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  from both what people have seen on social and also people that
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  have subscribed. Listeners are literally bringing
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  the conversation from behind a paywall to social media to talk
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  about how good this interview was and how everybody needs to
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  listen and brands need to listen up.
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  OK, so the podcast has gone viral for a few main reasons.
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  First, Rachel Amande is a total no bullshit interviewer.
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  She doesn't do the like small talk, kiss ass thing.
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  You can tell she is not necessarily.
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  I'm sure she's impressed by her guests, but she doesn't let that
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  cloud her interview style at all.
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  And being an interviewer, a good interviewer is so hard.
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  It is a skill that is honestly very difficult to master and she
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  has absolutely mastered it. She absolutely has this skill
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  and she really has earned her stripes, right.
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  Like I said, she did this podcast.
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  This is season 6. So she's done several seasons
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  before this. She's widely considered one of
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  the best fashion podcast available right now.
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  So her execution of this podcast in general was amazing.
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  And I think it kind of opened up a whole new audience for her of
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  people being like, Oh my God, maybe this is like the Call her
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  Daddy ask interview style podcast that we all need to be
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  listening to. Again, it's not about like
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  generic celebrities. It is about celebrities who are
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  like heavily in the fashion industry.
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  But there are a lot of celebrity interviews in her podcast.
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  Second, Steve Madden himself is, like, the embodiment of
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  authentic authenticity. In this interview, he spoke so
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  candidly about everything she asked him about, like his
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  history in prison, the brand's controversies, their criticisms.
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  He didn't have any type of, like, canned PR response.
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  You can tell he was, you know, not briefed on the questions
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  necessarily beforehand. He was just speaking from the
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  heart and it was so real and honest.
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  What do you say to folks who say that Steve Madden is a knock off
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  brand? It's.
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  Like calling The Beatles a knock off band because they would take
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  a little bit from Motown and a little bit from Elvis.
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  We designed tons of shoes, but you know, there's been the odd
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  little shoe that I've nicked here and there and.
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  It's not that the people who have loved this interview, like,
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  necessarily support stealing designers work, but it's more
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  like his candidness, his openness, his ability to just be
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  like, brazenly honest about it and be like, yeah, like, that
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  has been part of our strategy and it has worked.
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  And he wasn't trying to sugarcoat it and say, like, oh,
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  we're trying to make these styles more accessible.
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  Like, obviously that is part of it, Of course.
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  Like they're selling like Hermes knock off, like obviously who
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  can afford an Hermes sandal? But of course more people can
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  afford a Steve Madden sandal. Like, it is making those styles
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  more accessible for people. That's part of it.
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  But just the way he spoke about it was so refreshing.
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  So the cutting Room Floor has received thousands of new
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  subscribers from this interview. Thousands.
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  Can you imagine? And based on the number of views
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  and the number of comments on the episode itself, as well as
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  on the Tik Toks saying that people have, like, run to buy
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  his shoes, it seems that the interview has also generated him
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  millions of dollars in sales. One creator, Jameems, estimates
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  based on those markers that it was around $100 million in
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  sales. I think that's a little bit
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  steep. I don't know if her math was
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  quite mapping, but I definitely think it has given them a shit
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  ton of sales. But, you know, I think more
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  importantly, what this interview has done is brought Steve Madden
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  back into the zeitgeist because even though they're still a very
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  profitable brand, they were like, kind of a cool brand when
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  I was a millennial, like in middle school and high school.
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  And then they really lost that culture, natural relevance.
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  So this has really brought them back into the lexicon, into the
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  zeitgeist. And people are like, oh, yeah,
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  maybe I should, like, actively seek out buying a Steve Madden
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  shoe. And then I think the other side
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  of it is it's so cool as somebody who, you know, covers
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  the creator economy is doing podcasting myself.
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  Like, it's so cool to see a podcast go absolutely viral and
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  see so much success when it is behind a paywall.
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  I feel like that so rarely happens.
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  And I absolutely love that we're seeing this.
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  And also I love that Rachel's like leaning in, you know, she's
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  like going on TikTok and being like, hey, guys, if you want to
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  subscribe, it's this much money. And like, if you want to just
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  binge all my episodes for one month, like go for it.
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  You know, like she's again, it's like that open conversation,
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  that open dialogue. It's just this interview was
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  just so good in the way they've handled it after the social
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  promo, the response, like it's just been so good across the
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  board. A lot of brands could take a lot
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  from this interview, especially if they're founder LED brands
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  like Steve Madden. This is what actual authentic
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  looks like. You know, we talk a lot about
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  how like authenticity wins on social media.
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  Like this is actually authentic. This is what actual authenticity
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  means. It does not mean relatability.
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  You know, relatability and authenticity often get
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  intertwined. I think we use them
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  interchangeably. It's not about that.
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  It's about transparency. Like this is true authenticity
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  because both parties have been so completely transparent and
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  shown up just like completely open to having this conversation
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  and being honest about what all of this means.
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  And it was so good, so good. Highly recommend.
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  OK, the next story that I have for you guys is that Liv Schmidt
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  has been banned from monetizing on Meta after an article by The
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  Cut exposed her skinny subscription.
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  I'm going to say grift. So The Cut wrote an article on
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  Liv Schmidt this week and it has turned into a bit of a shitstorm
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  for the influencer. So for anyone who doesn't know
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  who Liv Schmidt is, I covered her on this podcast before, but
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  Liv is basically the queen of skinny talk.
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  I think she is the skinny talk influencer with the most
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  followers. She's a 23 year old model and
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  social media influencer living in New York City, and she gained
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  a following from basically talking about restrictive eating
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  and really glamorizing being skinny.
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  So I covered her last year when she got banned on Tiktok after
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  the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about her content.
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  And they reached out to Tiktok for comment.
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  And that kind of tipped Tiktok off about her and they banned
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  her. And that has actually become a
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  part of Liv's brand. Like she was able to spin this
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  into like, I'm being censored for being honest type of thing.
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  And it really did help build this parasocial relationship
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  with her followers. It gained her so many more
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  followers. I think her follower count I
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  read quadrupled after all of that coverage.
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  So it really only worked to her benefit.
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  Since then, Liv launched Skinny Society, which is a paid
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  subscription to be part of a variety of different group chats
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  and threads about how to stay skinny where you can interact
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  with other members and also interact with Liv.
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  And she posts subscriber only content that is essentially like
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  Ed propaganda, as you can imagine.
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  So EJ Dixon for the cut, she joined this group and then she
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  wrote about what's happening inside the Skinny Society quote.
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  Her subscriber only grid features glamorous black and
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  white stock photos of svelte models on yachts or in Italian
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  piazzas, sipping coffee or demurely slipping on designer
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  sunglasses, with captions like What to Do When People Comment
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  on Your Food and How I Stay Silent, skinny and unbothered.
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  In Schmidt's world, thinness isn't a physical state, but the
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  basis of an entire luxury lifestyle.
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  So Dixon said there were 21 threads with a total of 6500
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  subscribers who are all paying $20.00 a month.
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  So Liv was raking in $130,000 a month from this subscription
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  quote. Though Schmidt says the group is
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  open to only biological girls who are over the age of 18.
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  She didn't verify my age when I joined, and three people told me
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  they noticed members in the group chat whom they believed to
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  be in high school because they referred to homework.
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  I easily found at least 12 members who listed their high
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  schools and their BIOS, and I confirmed their ages by cross
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  referencing with their other social media profiles.
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  A member of 1. I recently mentioned that she
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  was graduating high school that day.
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  Congrats, another member wrote. You'll be the skinniest girl at
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  your graduation. Oh my God that actually makes me
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  want to cry. That's so fucked up.
• 11:19
  So this article has a lot more damning stuff in it.
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  I won't necessarily get into all of it because I think it
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  actually could be quite triggering, but since its
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  release, Mehta has demonetized her account and banned her from
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  selling subscriptions on Meta. Her page is also now restricted
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  to 18 plus. Although we know that age gating
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  on social media is not always the most accurate.
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  So I am sure there are a lot of followers there who are under
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  the age of 18 still and they just don't have the proper ages
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  signed up to their account. But Liv has responded by saying
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  that Meta didn't even reach out to her.
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  Basically saying like this is so fucked up on being censored type
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  thing. And she has also reportedly
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  posted in groups asking if anyone knows how to build an
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  app. Unfortunately no matter how many
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  apps she's banned off of, I fear she has enough of a cult
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  following now to keep going and to actually build this app.
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  I really do feel like her initial content was rage bait.
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  I do think of course like you have to believe it to be able to
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  post something as toxic as that. But I do think her initial
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  content which was really really horrible.
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  Like she has really watered her content down since then to avoid
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  these bans and things like that. But her initial content was so
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  horrible, I can only believe it was rage bait and it did so
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  well. And now this is her brand
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  online. It just makes me so sad.
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  I was talking with Annabelle about this because she is a true
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  Gen. Z and I am a true, I'm even like
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  a young millennial, but I'm like a millennial.
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  And we were talking about how there's such a difference
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  between how her and I, like, interpret that type of content.
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  It feels like between, you know, my generation and her, hers,
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  there was all this work done, especially online, to move into
• 13:00
  a more body positive space. And we were talking about how in
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  the nine years between, you know, me and her, there was so
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  much work done. And her generation was just
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  raised, like, just so differently than my generation,
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  than the millennials. And it feels like it's all being
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  undone. And I feel so bad for young Gen.
• 13:22
  Z, Gen. alpha. It's just, I can't believe we're
• 13:26
  back here. I can't believe we're back here.
• 13:29
  I feel like it's giving smoking. You know how one of the theories
• 13:32
  about smoking and why it's become quote UN quote cool again
• 13:35
  is because there was so much work done and like so much
• 13:38
  advertising and all of that to like get people to quit smoking
• 13:41
  and to demonize smoking and to realize how toxic smoking was
• 13:45
  for you. And it largely worked.
• 13:46
  So now there's not as much money being funneled into that.
• 13:49
  So younger generations are coming up without that type of
• 13:53
  messaging and smoking is not as demonized for them as it was for
• 13:58
  younger or older generations. And so I feel like it's almost
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  similar, you know, with the body positivity movement and like
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  heroin chic and all of this. And it makes me sad because I
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  thought we did so much work. But I can see, especially as I
• 14:10
  get older, that that wasn't necessarily the case.
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  And I feel like any of the work that was being done has been
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  undone now. All right, the last story that I
• 14:19
  have for you guys is that Just Jazzy hosted the influencer
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  wedding of the year this weekend and the Internet cannot stop
• 14:27
  talking about how much content she put out.
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  OK, so Jazz, also known as just Jazzy, is a New York City
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  lifestyle TikTok creator who's basically a part of that like
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  big a girl clique like Hallie Cage acquired style Audrey
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  Peters, Kate Keenan Hallie's her best friend and Hallie and Jazz
• 14:43
  have a podcast together called Delusional Diaries.
• 14:46
  So Jazz got married over the weekend, and it has been the
• 14:49
  talk of Reddit because she posted 39 Tik Toks in real time
• 14:55
  over in the course of two days. She's facing a lot of questions
• 14:59
  and criticism about how she managed to do this, if she was
• 15:02
  truly present at her wedding, if she was like posting and
• 15:05
  creating all this content, if she really got married for just
• 15:08
  the content, all of that kind of stuff.
• 15:11
  There's a lot of criticism on Reddit.
• 15:13
  There's also a lot of people like really celebrating her
• 15:15
  marriage and her wedding and, you know, being excited for her
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  and stuff. But there are a lot of people
• 15:19
  being like, what the fuck? So Jazz has responded to the
• 15:22
  criticism, sharing that she hired 2 content for her wedding
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  who had a second phone of hers with her TikTok logged in and
• 15:30
  then she showed the spreadsheet. OK, so they created the
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  spreadsheet all together where she had been saving videos for
• 15:37
  months like wet from different wedding accounts and brides and
• 15:39
  stuff of things she wanted to recreate.
• 15:42
  So she had like the video link, she had the sound link she had
• 15:46
  like the concept link to the day she wanted to do it on like it
• 15:49
  was a full content calendar. OK.
• 15:51
  And she said basically she didn't have to think about it at
• 15:53
  all. Like she created this in
• 15:54
  advance. And then she hired these two
• 15:56
  creators that had her TikTok logged in and they were filming,
• 16:00
  editing and posting in real time for her.
• 16:03
  And I think whether you agree that she should have done this
• 16:06
  or not, like whether she should have been like, creating all
• 16:08
  this content on her wedding or not, I actually support this.
• 16:11
  I think it shows that she takes her job really seriously.
• 16:14
  I like seeing the strategy behind the scenes of an
• 16:17
  influencer. I like that you can tell that
• 16:19
  there was, like, strategy and planning and work put into this
• 16:23
  because at the end of the day, like, this is her job.
• 16:25
  And while there were people being like, well, I took, you
• 16:27
  know, time off my job for my wedding.
• 16:29
  It's like, yeah, but her job is posting.
• 16:31
  Her life. Her life and her job are
• 16:33
  completely intertwined. And that is the disadvantage of
• 16:36
  being an influencer. It's like there's a million
• 16:38
  advantages that has, but the one disadvantage is that you cannot
• 16:43
  actually switch off. Like, her job is her life and
• 16:46
  her life is her job. And they are completely
• 16:48
  intertwined. And for the amount of money and
• 16:50
  the amount of privilege that influencers get, especially
• 16:53
  these New York City girls, like they are slaying so hard.
• 16:56
  Like, I actually do want to see that they take their job
• 16:59
  seriously, that they're looking at this as a business.
• 17:02
  I think that's really refreshing and you know, it was a good
• 17:06
  business decision because she said that most of these videos
• 17:09
  she made no money on because they have to be over a minute
• 17:11
  long and most of these were just like quick little quips, you
• 17:14
  know, so she didn't make any money on the specific like
• 17:16
  content itself. However, she did gain over
• 17:20
  42,000 TikTok followers just this weekend from her wedding
• 17:24
  content and a similar amount on Instagram.
• 17:27
  So it was a good business decision regardless.
• 17:29
  And again, if Jazz, who makes her money, who has built her
• 17:32
  career and her platform off of sharing her life, if she didn't
• 17:35
  share any of her wedding content, people would have been
• 17:38
  mad about that too. You know, like, I think the fact
• 17:40
  that she was working so hard on her wedding day, like, that's
• 17:43
  refreshing. I like to see that.
• 17:45
  Do I necessarily think that should have happened?
• 17:47
  I don't know. That's up to her.
• 17:48
  She seems like happy about it. She seemed totally OK with it.
• 17:51
  Her career is built off of posting her life in real time.
• 17:54
  And so she looked at her wedding and said, how can I still show
• 17:59
  up for my platform, show up for my followers and make this into,
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  you know, a business opportunity while also staying as present in
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  my real life as possible? And I think she did a good job.
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  I really liked following her wedding.
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  It was literally everywhere for me.
• 18:15
  And yeah, I was so beautiful. It was at the blank space.
• 18:18
  Is that what it was, the blank space castle?
• 18:20
  Yeah, it was at the blank space, like mansion slash castle.
• 18:24
  And it was so beautiful. And it was influencer studded.
• 18:27
  But yeah, I appreciate the grind.
• 18:29
  OK, anyways guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
• 18:33
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 18:35
  Please rate review and subscribe.
• 18:38
  Please star rate US on Spotify and I will talk to you tomorrow.
• 18:41
  Bye.