Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / The step-by-step guide to getting your first 10,000 TikTok followers with The Queen of Social Media, Rachel Pedersen

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The step-by-step guide to getting your first 10,000 TikTok followers with The Queen of Social Media, Rachel Pedersen · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Rachel Peterson for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. I'm your host, Doon Roshin, and on today's show, I'm chatting to the queen of social media, literally the queen, Rachel Peterson. Rachel has built a wildly successful digital agency and an even crazier social media following. And the purpose of this episode is to give you a step-by-step guide to launching your business TikTok account.
• 0:39
  And while I've got you here, if you're looking for more nifty tips and tricks, you can tune into my Instagram or TikTok at Doona Rasheen, where I post daily quick tips, how-to guides, and other useful bits and bobs relating to all things business and e-commerce. Feel free to slide into my DMs because I love to chat. And lastly, if you haven't done so already, please do subscribe to the Female Startup Club podcast so you can get notified of our new episodes every week.
• 1:04
  And if you're feeling particularly generous, rate and review the podcast. It's how other ears find us and it always brightens my day to read what you have to say. This is Rachel for Female Startup Club. Hey, Rachel, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Female Startup Club podcast today. Dune, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here today.
• 1:26
  Yay, I'm so glad. So you've got 350,000 followers on TikTok with almost 6 million likes or over 6 million likes. You have 90,000 followers on Instagram, 43,000 subscribers on YouTube. You really are the queen of social media. So I'm eager to start with who you are and what you do and how you've done it. For sure. So I'm Rachel Peterson. I'm a Minnesota, United States-based mom of three.
• 1:53
  I have a nine-year-old, a six-year-old and a two-year-old. And I feel like that kind of helps to play into how crazy life and business can be, like juggling all of those different things and having my husband and I work together in business and then also being lovers. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. It's intense and fun. But I am a social media strategist. I'm really passionate about organic energy.
• 2:17
  and paid strategies that actually move the needle towards your goals. And that's super important. I think sometimes people see social media as like a silo that's separate from like the goals that we have. And so when I dove into organic social, it was a time when people were really poo-pooing it. And they were saying like,
• 2:34
  There's no power in organic social media. And I wanted to say like, I don't know about that. Let's see what we can do. So I started taking on clients in November of 2015, which was just about five years ago, which is kind of crazy. And now we are really growing into taking on clients in an equity partnership. So it's kind of like a shark tank model. So we went traditional agency routes.
• 3:00
  and then started to grow into my dream model, which was I want to partner with these people that I'm helping blow up their businesses. And we've had a lot of crazy success. And obviously my platforms have grown, but we've helped clients go from
• 3:12
  $300,000 a year in revenue to over $3 million in just 11 months. We helped a skincare company blow up and they went from $6,000 a month to $286,000 a month. And last I heard they were doing like $5 million a year in revenue now and got huge investors on board. We turned $25,000 in ad spend into $1.6 million. And all of this is done by using organic social to understand further
• 3:42
  Wow, that is so cool and so impressive. And I really love how you're working with people in a way that incentivizes you to push further and get really great results rather than, you know, being paid, say, a retainer flat fee and then being like, well, yeah, you know, like I'm doing what I can. You've got that real motivation to do really, really well so that it's good for you and your family. Yeah.
• 4:07
  I will say it was scary going into this model. And I went into this model at the advice of several of my mentors. Roland Frazier has always been a mentor from afar. And he was like, go into the equity game and build businesses like they're yours. And then that way, you'll just never be sad when a business thrives. And when a business isn't thriving, you're going to be more invested in turning it around. And Jay Abraham is also my mentor. And he
• 4:33
  This is going to be really hard. And you're going to take a cut to your revenue for a little bit on the agency side. He said, go all in. And 10 years from now, you will never regret that you did it. And so I was scared going into this. But I was like, if out of the six companies that we currently have equity in besides our two, if two of them blow up, it's going to totally be worth it. But I want to ultimately see hopefully all of them succeed. But it's really rewarding. Definitely.
• 5:02
  Yeah, it's a really smart, definitely a smart strategy to go in at it that way. I really want to talk to you about all things TikTok. That's what today's podcast is about. And I want to learn how someone can go from having no TikTok and they have a business and, you know, go into blowing it up and getting started and what the steps are to getting there.
• 5:24
  Oh my gosh. So I just want to share this real fast because I know sometimes we can all feel like we're late to the game or like it's too late or, you know, that window's already over. Just this week, I was talking with someone who I helped to grow with my advice. His name is DadLifeJason. That's not his name. That's his handle. Let's be clear. DadLifeJason.
• 5:44
  And just two months ago, he had like five or 600,000 followers, but that was already like huge for him. He thought that was the limit. And over the last two months, he grew by 1 million followers and he had thought it was too late to
• 6:00
  past the 1 million mark. And he now he's at like 1.6 million or almost 2 million followers because of the growth that he's had these last two months. And I just this past month, another gal, her name is Jamie. She started a new TikTok and she has soared over 500,000 followers in one month. What? How?
• 6:24
  This is insane, right? And I like to share this because if anyone listening to this is like me, sometimes you think, oh, that's great for other people, but I'm not that funny or I'm not that good at dancing or I'm not as cute as some of the 20 year olds on this platform. And it could be easy to think like I can't grow. And it's great to see like other real people who aren't the superlatives crushing it. So Jamie's now over 500,000 subscribers.
• 6:51
  followers and her handle is Elementually. But I started on TikTok about two years ago, and it was September of 2019 that I realized, I think that this is a real platform with real legs. I think this is going to be a thing. And so at that point, I had about 7,000 followers in September. It hasn't even been a year since we've exploded. And then I started prioritizing it and saying, this is a huge part of our strategy. Let's make this happen. Yeah.
• 7:18
  And we have stumbled along the way. I have learned a lot of lessons. I have truly learned the hardest milestones are first, your first 1000 followers. That is the hardest because you're in your head. You're doubting the process. You're nervous. You're seeing what other people are doing. And you're really finding your own voice on this platform.
• 7:40
  And the second hardest is 10,000. Beyond that, you watch as it snowballs. And now I'm growing between one and 3,000 followers per day. And it's insane. Like there's an incredible snowball that can happen. But I want to be honest with you. That first 1,000 is absolutely the hardest.
• 8:02
  Yeah, I bet. I watched one of your videos about how to get to your first 1,000 followers. And that's how I got my first 1,000 followers. But now I'm trying to reach that 10,000 mark. It's really, really tricky.
• 8:16
  Okay, so how do people get started then? How do they figure out what content they should be posting? Especially, I think like people still have that idea about TikTok. Like, you know, it's dancing, it's fun, it's silly. But like, how can I make a business TikTok? Like, how can I put my business on here and like do stuff?
• 8:33
  Totally. So I want to disclaim this because in case anyone looks at my TikTok, I'm at the Mrs. Peterson, but I'm super goofy. That is my personality. I'm an Enneagram 7. I like to dance and I like to lip sync and I like to get a little cheeky, not too bad. Nothing that would humiliate my kids, but a little. So like if you see that, that's my personality and no one else has to do that. You don't have to dance to succeed on TikTok.
• 8:59
  You don't have to lip sync and you don't even have to be that funny or creative, which is really, really cool and empowering. And I think that's something that makes this platform different. You don't necessarily have to be a superlative, meaning the best, the funniest, the prettiest, the smartest, et cetera. All you have to do is serve some people. I personally like for businesses when they follow four categories and these four are education, entertainment, emotion, and engagement.
• 9:29
  And so things like education, you can think about like the FAQs you get in your business. What are things that people always ask you? Like for me, people always say, how can I monetize this platform? How can I monetize this platform? What would you do for this type of company? And so I'll start to create those answers in original content that doesn't even use music or lip syncing or dancing of any kind.
• 9:53
  Now, that can help speed up growth. So sometimes I'll dance behind the educational information and that will help a video to just take off initially, but you don't have to. I also like entertainment. You can relate to others that you would want to serve. Let's say you want to serve moms.
• 10:11
  Make some content that makes moms laugh and say, that is relatable. Yes. Basically, if someone says, I thought I was the only one, as they're watching your video, oh my gosh, you have just won them over with entertainment. Make them able to laugh. Make them be able to laugh or get mad or something along those lines. Entertain them, right? The next thing you want to tap into is engagement.
• 10:35
  And so one of my favorite ways to do this is to ask questions and be like, you know, is this you? Does this relate to you? If so, comment below. You can always ask people to comment below, but engage your audience and say, hey, I just wanted to know how many of the business owners watching this are experiencing X, Y, and Z. If that's you, comment below because I'm really thinking about
• 10:55
  creating a training series on this or what questions you have about hairstyles. I'm going to be answering a ton of questions. Go ahead and ask your questions below. And that will spur on an entire series. And then emotion is a little tougher for me to teach because emotion is something that intuitively some people are great at and others just don't understand it. It's not showing up on camera and being a blubbering mess. It's letting people just see a little bit of the emotion behind your business, whether that is
• 11:24
  sadness or frustration, or maybe you're tapping into the feelings that your clients or customers have and relating to people on a deep level. It's very difficult for me to teach emotion. Some people get it. Not everyone does, but feel free to not be scared of tapping into the feelings that either you, your team, your business, your industry, or your clients experience.
• 11:48
  Yeah. And I guess that also comes back to that, like, relatability of like, hey, I'm just a normal person, just like you. I struggle with things just like you. Yeah, totally. That leads me into, like, another kind of element to that, the emotion behind, like, online haters. How do you deal with people who are just, like, flat out nasty or flat out mean? I've had some, like, not crazy comments, but just some people who, like, give me a bit of sass. And I'm like, but why? Okay, so...
• 12:18
  This is one thing I didn't expect. I didn't realize that as I grew, it would no longer become the rare occasion that there was a hater. It was a matter of how many there are on each content piece.
• 12:32
  Oh, gosh. So I'm just letting you know, like it does grow. But I feel like as it grows, you become more and more comfortable with the different coping mechanisms. So I always say there's like three different phases of dealing with haters. Now, today, I can't put up the content piece without at least one comment of hate.
• 12:51
  Whether it's this girl is so annoying. Her forehead's huge. You're so fake. You've clearly had a ton of work done, which isn't true, but it also doesn't matter because if I did, that would be my choice. Or they'll say she has no idea what she's talking about. Yeah, right. This is a scam. So that comes out all the time now.
• 13:09
  And so I wish I had known that going into business and being able to prepare myself for it. So the first phase is delete and block. Like when you're first learning how to deal with it, delete the comment, block the person. And you can keep that skill set like that resource available to you forever.
• 13:28
  If someone ever crosses a line or is abusive, feel free to delete and block and you do not have to justify it. So that's like the first tool that I offer to people. You have freedom to do that. You can delete and block anyone you want. The second phase is replying with love and grace.
• 13:43
  This is another tool that you can bring into play because truth be told, if someone's hating, they've been hurt without a doubt. And they're some of the most hurting people you can find, which is kind of sad. Now, some people like to just troll on purpose and get a reaction. And that's what brought me to this new phase. I no longer even replied to hate comments.
• 14:03
  I ignore them. My team will sometimes reply on my behalf on like ads and stuff, but I stopped paying attention to them. And I was just like, you know what? If I give them attention, they're going to learn that this behavior, just like kids, I see them as like little kids now. And I'm like, this behavior is not what gets attention. So we just ignore it most of the time. But those are three big tools that can help you with dealing with it. Because it's not a matter of if anymore, it's when.
• 14:30
  Yeah, that's so true. And that's such an important one. And I'm going to be dipping into that toolbox ASAP. Another really important part of TikTok is obviously hashtags. Is there any specific advice you have? How do people go about finding them? Is it different to something like Instagram? What's your top tips?
• 14:51
  Okay, so Instagram has never been my favorite platform. And I just want to be honest, it's starting to become one of my faves because of how we're changing the way we're using it, which has been really cool. And TikTok taught me a lot about hashtags. I think we all believe that the bigger hashtags we use, the more likely we are to be found. And I get this reminder over and over and over again, because every time I don't follow this, I'm like kicking myself. Okay.
• 15:19
  You go small to go big. You relate to one person to relate to 100 or 1,000. And so as crazy as this is, there isn't really too small of hashtags. You can go down to 100 uses, 1,000 uses, 5,000. It's harder to find those hashtags, but you want to use as many small niche down hashtags as you can.
• 15:40
  Now for people who consistently go viral, you can start tapping into bigger hashtags, but until you have consistent account authority, niche down. And every time I don't niche down, like I said, I kick myself. I'm like, dang it. I needed to niche down there. And I see exactly why my videos don't go viral when they don't. Gosh, good one. I think I'm guilty of taking those, those big ones. Yeah.
• 16:04
  Amazing. I just want to ask you before we jump into the six quick questions, what's your one piece of advice for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business? Ooh. Okay. So spend some time getting really familiar with what the vision looks like, everything you can see and don't share it with everyone. I know that's going to sound crazy at first.
• 16:27
  Sit on it, journal on it, sketch out any part of it you can and only then share it with people that you trust. It's like if you have a brand new baby, you don't hand it to every stranger you meet. You only are going to say like, okay, my family that I trust can hold this baby. The same thing is true with your vision or your dreams. Don't hand it to everyone who asks.
• 16:47
  and protect it because until you are 100% certain, any outside doubt can make you wonder, is this even a good idea? And the outside doubt is waiting to do that. So keep it safe, journal it, nurture it, just like a brand new baby. And then once it's strong enough, then you can share it with the world. I love that. That's so special. All right, the six quick questions. Ready to go? Yes, do it. Question number one is what's your why? Whew.
• 17:18
  So for me, the beginning, my why was I wanted to see how far I could push myself. And then once I achieved some big things that I didn't know if they were possible or not, then I realized I need to help other people realize this is possible too. So once I climbed the mountain, I was like, I need to go back down and help others navigate this mountain.
• 17:42
  I love that. Question number two is what's been the number one marketing moment that's made your business pop? Relationships. Oh my gosh. Sometimes people will say, how did you get so lucky to connect with so-and-so or so-and-so? Or why did these people comment on your stuff? And I still, I think if I went back in time, I'd be like, pinch me if I saw the legends that comment on some of my stuff and it's like normal now.
• 18:07
  But I really nurtured those relationships without ever expecting a single thing in return. I just showed up consistently for them. So nurture the relationships and the relationship nurturing happens in the DMs. Oh, good one. I've seen some really nice relationships that you have with some crazy people online. It's incredible. So amazing. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? Yeah.
• 18:34
  Right now I'm a part of a really cool mastermind. And this is weird because I'm the baby of this mastermind. It's been a while since I've been the least successful in like a group. And I am by far the least successful in this group. The people in this group have anywhere from $150 million companies to people who have crossed $2 billion in revenue.
• 18:58
  And I feel very dumb in this room and I kind of love it. So I try to just find where are the smart people that I can give social media strategies that they don't see. And then you get amazing invitations to rooms where you're like, OK. So I just entered a new room where I'm the least smart, least successful person. And it's going to be really cool to see the growth trajectory. But this is a private mastermind that's totally free. And it was invitational. Yeah.
• 19:27
  That's so cool. And I guess it would be really humbling to be around all those people. What kind of things do you learn in those groups? Just a quick side note here. Like what happens? How does a mastermind work like that? Yeah. So usually what happens is like everyone introduces themselves on the first call and
• 19:43
  And you share the highs, the lows, what things look like in your business. One of the things that is shocking about these kind of masterminds that I never expected is how truly supportive everyone is. Like when someone shares a big win or something that's working, everyone's like, that is amazing. And there's not an ounce of jealousy. And in fact, that was one of the precursors for this group.
• 20:08
  Jealousy is not allowed. And if it happens, those people will be removed. But usually people take turns, whether it's week by week or hour by hour on these calls, they present an issue that they're having and the whole group comes together and they say, hey, here's what worked for me. Or, hey, I see a different solution. And everyone just comes to the table and serves. And it's really powerful to see. And even if you aren't the one having an issue worked through, you can learn so much from everyone else.
• 20:37
  Gosh, it sounds incredible. Congrats. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and PM rituals. Morning. I did this thing called the five archetypes and it's Chinese medicine, like your personality. I love it. It's so cool. And I am a fire archetype. And that explained why I don't do well working out in the morning. I don't need more fire starter activities. I actually need cooling and calming in the morning.
• 21:06
  So that helped me to solidify exactly what I was always feeling. Like working out did not help me win the day in the morning, in the morning. So I start out and I go in my workout room and I sit and I do meditation and I'm quiet and I sit with my thoughts. And sometimes I'll write a couple notes in my journal. It has to be quiet. I can't touch work. I can't be aggressive. It means to be chill. It's a quiet, chill routine in the morning, which is so different than I think a lot of people's.
• 21:35
  And then evenings is when I go into my natural fire energy. So I'm like, I'm going to work out. I do an hour and a half workout every night after the kids go to bed. And that is so great. And then I am super lazy with like my skincare. I do like a baby wipe, take all my makeup off, throw some lotion on my face, like do a dry brush on my skin. And then I go to sleep.
• 22:02
  That sounds amazing. I'm going to do mine after this. Question number five is, if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? I would build an email list with a specific offer and then create 1,000 more. So I would probably build an email list, get somewhere between 200 and 1,000 emails
• 22:29
  And then I would offer them all something that was a no brainer price point. Probably between 20 and $50 and then offer a higher ticket product. Yeah, that's totally what I would do. That's a great answer. I love that. And last final question is how do you deal with failure? Happens all the time.
• 22:52
  I feel like it happens every day lately. So you just realize it's a part of the journey. And a failure doesn't reflect who you are unless you let it define you. So I've redefined what failure means. It just means I discovered something that isn't the right path. And then we pivot to finding where the right path is.
• 23:13
  Thank you so much for being on the show today. I have absolutely loved our chat. And if anyone's wanting to find sort of your best resource or the best place to find you, where shall we direct them? My website has like 16 different free resources on like the homepage, rachelpeterson.com, all E's and a D in my last name. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Dune.
• 23:42
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 24:07
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 24:29
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that. Thank you.
• 24:46
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 25:11
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 25:33
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.