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Post and Ghost: Protect Your Sanity While Growing Your Show · Your Mic

• 0:00
  This episode of Your Mic is going to sound a little bit different, and by a little bit, I mean a lot, because we're not really talking about podcasting.
• 0:08
  We are talking about social media.
• 0:11
  And if you host a show, you definitely need a social presence.
• 0:16
  And if views, reach, and exposure matter to you, this is the episode you want to listen to.
• 0:22
  So we're handing the mic over to one of my friends, Brittany Alston.
• 0:26
  She's the founder of Fun Love Media.
• 0:28
  She's my co-founder for Illuminate, which is the event where this was recorded.
• 0:33
  And she's steering the conversation with our friend, Dr. Trevor Baffoni.
• 0:36
  He is a Houston educator turned creator with over 700,000 followers.
• 0:41
  He's been on GMA, and he once did a striptease for Centerpoint Energy.
• 0:45
  In his own words, going viral is luck.
• 0:49
  And a quick heads up.
• 0:50
  This one is explicit.
• 0:53
  Trevor swears.
• 0:54
  And he gets really blunt about the hate he gets online, including repeating some of the nastier things strangers have said to him in the comments section.
• 1:03
  And if you're listening with kids in the car or a boss in the room, hit pause and come back later.
• 1:08
  Oh, and one more thing.
• 1:10
  Illuminate 2027 is going to happen.
• 1:13
  Brittany and I met a few days ago, and we have tentatively set it for April.
• 1:18
  And if today's conversation sounds like your kind of jam, keep an ear out because info is coming and you won't want to miss out.
• 1:30
  This Houston-based educator, writer, and content creator's work using TikTok and social media with his students has been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, Inside Edition, and Access Hollywood, among numerous national media platforms.
• 1:43
  Just no big deal.
• 1:44
  He spent years as an educator, has published multiple books, works in PR right here in Houston, Texas.
• 1:50
  Speaking of Houston, if you live here, you may have seen him in the wild creating content about area businesses, museums, special locations.
• 1:57
  Please welcome...
• 1:58
  The wonderful, one of my besties, Dr. Trevor Baffoni.
• 2:04
  Thank you for having me.
• 2:06
  And if you want to hire me to do that everywhere you go.
• 2:08
  She's coming with me.
• 2:09
  It's not cheap.
• 2:10
  Okay.
• 2:11
  Anyway, no, we really are...
• 2:14
  Great friends, collaborators, and Trevor does a lot of really, really cool stuff on social media.
• 2:20
  And the reason why I specifically want to talk to him about this topic, about growth on social media, because it's a popular topic.
• 2:26
  A lot of people want to know how to grow, right?
• 2:28
  But we're going to be real and raw and open and honest and share all the things.
• 2:34
  Okay, let's start out with the fact that...
• 2:38
  This guy has over 700,000 followers or something like that, right, on social media?
• 2:42
  Also, no big deal.
• 2:45
  And you've had different spouts of growth and things like that.
• 2:49
  So I want to, setting all that aside, talk about the biggest lie you think that there is about social media growth.
• 2:58
  What might we hear about social media growth?
• 2:59
  And it's like...
• 3:01
  Not really.
• 3:02
  Yeah, I would say the idea that you have to post multiple times a day on TikTok or Instagram to grow.
• 3:08
  That's the thing you see.
• 3:10
  There's like these scam pages.
• 3:12
  You've probably seen them where the accounts are all about teaching you how to grow.
• 3:16
  Right?
• 3:16
  That's all the content is about.
• 3:18
  Yeah.
• 3:19
  Yeah.
• 3:20
  All they say is, you know, post three times a day.
• 3:21
  And how easy is that, right?
• 3:23
  How often do you post?
• 3:24
  So I post one time a day.
• 3:25
  I did do the three-a-day thing.
• 3:28
  When I turned 40, I did 40 days of three times a day.
• 3:32
  And that was fucking hard.
• 3:33
  I mean, I think I made 40 days.
• 3:37
  I think I...
• 3:38
  38 days I made it, the three posts a day, but it was like impossible.
• 3:41
  You know, having a full-time job, having a child, having an active, robust social life.
• 3:51
  But that's the advice I think is just kind of like crappy.
• 3:53
  And I think what I always tell people is...
• 3:55
  whatever you can do and manage for the rest of time, you know, that's what you should stick to.
• 4:00
  If it's two posts a week, three posts a week, that's great.
• 4:03
  Do it, do it well, get better every time you do it and continue that, that energy.
• 4:07
  And if you have those moments where you have a bunch of content, you can post a few extra things here and there.
• 4:12
  Great.
• 4:13
  But,
• 4:14
  What happens is, and I see this with clients and people I do consulting with, is they will get excited, they get the training, they come to these kind of things here, and they'll try to post every day or multiple times a day.
• 4:25
  And then after a few weeks, after a month, they're burnt out.
• 4:29
  And they don't have a positive relationship with it, which then shows up in the content, which then shows up in the fact that there isn't content.
• 4:37
  Right.
• 4:38
  Yeah.
• 4:38
  Okay.
• 4:39
  Yeah.
• 4:39
  Cause it's like, you're going to just like need to do this forever.
• 4:42
  Okay.
• 4:42
  So like whatever you can do forever.
• 4:44
  Um, okay.
• 4:45
  So what does it really take to go viral in your opinion?
• 4:49
  What's the secret sauce recipe?
• 4:51
  Is there a strategy?
• 4:52
  Luck?
• 4:52
  Both?
• 4:53
  What are your thoughts on that?
• 4:54
  Um, show a little ankle.
• 4:56
  No.
• 4:57
  A little nip slip here and there.
• 4:58
  No, I'm kidding.
• 5:00
  So I will say, I did, I will sidebar.
• 5:02
  That would work.
• 5:03
  I did show nip this year for the first time in seven years.
• 5:07
  I was getting in a cold plunge, and the top comment on TikTok was, nipple reveal!
• 5:12
  And I have not shown nip since.
• 5:14
  But what was the question?
• 5:17
  Tell everybody about your nipples.
• 5:20
  They match my lip color.
• 5:22
  What does it really take to go viral?
• 5:25
  What does it take to go viral?
• 5:27
  So I've went viral for dancing with my students.
• 5:29
  I've went viral for funny social commentary about Hurricane Beryl.
• 5:35
  I strip teased in front of Centerpoint Energy.
• 5:38
  I was in the Houston Chronicle for that.
• 5:40
  I went viral for getting stuck in Japan.
• 5:44
  With students, I went viral for doing things in Houston.
• 5:49
  My health museum video on TikTok went viral.
• 5:52
  I opened that video with, hey, ma, I'm in a giant colon.
• 5:55
  People like that.
• 5:57
  Go do that later, actually.
• 5:59
  That's a good look.
• 6:00
  Yes, go crawl through the colon.
• 6:02
  And, but the thing in all of the, you know, it's different styles of content, but the thing that is consistent is I am putting my personality first, right?
• 6:10
  I'm being myself authentically me as best I can and not being afraid of what people might think.
• 6:16
  I have haters, you know, I have people that will make fun of me for my appearance, the way I speak, the way I dance, whatever it might be.
• 6:23
  But like, fuck them, right?
• 6:25
  I don't care.
• 6:26
  I am being myself.
• 6:28
  And I think...
• 6:29
  bringing people into your personality and just authentically doing the things that you want to be doing or do on your day-to-day basis is the magic sauce, right?
• 6:38
  Or part of the magic sauce.
• 6:40
  The other part of the magic sauce is once you see what people are resonating with, doing more of that content, right?
• 6:46
  So like I noticed quickly early on when I was making fun classroom content in the first, you know, four or five years of my content creator journey that if I stood on a desk,
• 6:58
  danced on top of a desk, that always did better.
• 7:02
  If I'm holding a bag of chips while I'm... Like hot chips.
• 7:05
  Hot Cheetos.
• 7:05
  If I was a hot Cheetos girl, right?
• 7:07
  Takis or whatever.
• 7:08
  If I was doing that in the videos, that was always performing better.
• 7:13
  Right?
• 7:13
  Or I noticed in my classroom I had...
• 7:16
  I had a flag.
• 7:17
  I had a, what do you call it?
• 7:19
  Like different countries I would switch out or a pride flag or whatever it might be.
• 7:24
  And so I would notice people were all of a sudden commenting like the DR flag, the Dominican Republic flag, or those sorts of things.
• 7:30
  So I would like swap them out or I'd write messages on the board.
• 7:32
  So there's multiple layers in the video to engage with, right?
• 7:37
  Or like when I do, so right now I mostly do like vlogs around town or I'll do things in,
• 7:43
  Things to do in Houston, right?
• 7:44
  So like when I was at the health museum and I was looking at all of the content I had, I always start with the most interesting clip I have, the most interesting two seconds, three second clip I have.
• 7:54
  It could be something funny.
• 7:55
  It could be like...
• 7:57
  something bizarre it could be um like i'm eating i'm at a restaurant trying something and i choke i'm not actually choke well maybe i'm not going to wood but but you know i get something funny on camera um but it's the health museum i'm in this giant colon and i like have this call out i'm doing kind of a voice it resonated with people right but when i came i did a clip of i did like a let's get fun
• 8:19
  physical, physical moment on the bicycle with the skeleton next to me.
• 8:24
  I did a thing where I'm hanging upside down.
• 8:26
  You know, I tried all sorts of different things.
• 8:27
  And then when I was looking through, I have a focus group too.
• 8:31
  Brittany has sometimes been my focus group, but I'll say, hey, what do you think is funnier?
• 8:36
  What do you think is more catchy, A or B, in that video?
• 8:39
  So you always want to start with something really catchy.
• 8:42
  Never, hey, my name is Jennifer Bassman, and here's what I'm gonna talk to you today about.
• 8:48
  Start with the most interesting.
• 8:49
  Definitely, I'll start with that.
• 8:50
  You start with the, actually, that might do well, but you start with the most interesting thing.
• 8:55
  You start with the most interesting thing.
• 8:56
  You want to have something visually interesting.
• 9:00
  So on and so forth.
• 9:02
  That's a few tips.
• 9:03
  Quick tips.
• 9:04
  Before I move on to the next question, really go to Trevor's content and just study it.
• 9:08
  Because what he's saying, it really is how he does it and how he formats everything.
• 9:12
  You'll see the patterns.
• 9:13
  OK, so in case somebody is curious, what happens when you go viral, even semi-viral?
• 9:18
  Like when you have something really get a lot of views, what actually happens to your account, your notifications, and the comments?
• 9:24
  Like what could people expect in that experience?
• 9:27
  Yeah, so I'll tell you in the beginning I was obsessive.
• 9:30
  I had a spreadsheet.
• 9:31
  So let me go back.
• 9:33
  Still have you had a spreadsheet?
• 9:34
  I had a Google Sheet.
• 9:36
  So my brother is a... Vanessa's excited about that.
• 9:41
  Vanessa will like this.
• 9:43
  So I am the, of my siblings, I'm the free spirit, do whatever I want, go where the wind takes me.
• 9:51
  My brother is like a true Texas oil capitalist, right?
• 9:55
  And so I went viral the first minute I posted.
• 9:59
  My first video, like within a minute.
• 10:01
  Hang on.
• 10:04
  I, anyway, I know, but, but I did, I did.
• 10:07
  I was on an airplane a few months ago and I was looking through, I decided to like do a, a cleanse on my, my photos and stuff.
• 10:15
  And I was looking through and I was sending Brittany.
• 10:17
  I had like a text that I was ready to send Brittany when I landed.
• 10:21
  Um, and it was like, I had posted four total posts, just four posts and had 70,000 followers on Instagram within like, within like four weeks.
• 10:31
  And, um, I,
• 10:33
  But I was obsessive.
• 10:34
  So the spreadsheet, my brother, my brother had the spreadsheet and he would literally track every day.
• 10:38
  Like you got 10,000 followers today, 5,000.
• 10:40
  Well, no, he wasn't doing it in an all way.
• 10:42
  He was doing it in a let's make money off of this way.
• 10:45
  And, you know, but that was not fun for me.
• 10:50
  And when I tried to like make money off of it, the content never did well.
• 10:53
  Right.
• 10:54
  It didn't perform well because it wasn't having the same energy.
• 10:59
  And but what happens, what I learned was that I needed to disconnect.
• 11:03
  So like I post and I ghost like I post and then I will not like I posted today before this and I will not check my accounts until tomorrow morning.
• 11:11
  right?
• 11:12
  Because when you have those viral, well, in general, you know, I don't check views.
• 11:15
  I don't check any of that until the next day.
• 11:18
  But when you go viral, it's,
• 11:20
  like all consuming, right?
• 11:22
  Like if you have notifications, I don't believe in notifications on my phone.
• 11:25
  I would say like ditch them, especially for social media because it becomes this like constant thing where you have to check, check, check, check.
• 11:34
  What are they saying?
• 11:35
  What are they saying?
• 11:35
  How many views?
• 11:36
  And you get kind of obsessive about it, which to me, like for me was not healthy, right?
• 11:41
  I mean, for you, I don't know, other people, it might be fine, but for me, it just wasn't good.
• 11:47
  You also get like a lot of DMs,
• 11:49
  A lot of weird DMs.
• 11:50
  I've been, a lot of people want to date me right now.
• 11:55
  My spouse is not into that.
• 11:57
  No, but it's so weird.
• 11:58
  Like people will literally, you get, she gets a lot of DMs too.
• 12:01
  Like some thirsty DMs.
• 12:04
  but you know what?
• 12:05
  Maybe we should just see what happens.
• 12:07
  No, but it's wild, but you get weird stuff.
• 12:10
  You get weird DMs.
• 12:11
  You get some good DMs, and honestly, you ignore most of it, right?
• 12:15
  You don't have to respond to everything.
• 12:17
  If you get 1,000 comments on a video, you don't have to respond to all those comments.
• 12:21
  Of course, the more you respond to you're playing well in the sandbox, you know, it's...
• 12:27
  it's good practice to respond to as much as you can, but like Kalem knows too, Brittany, like some of these posts, like you literally can't respond to everything, right?
• 12:35
  Or like I'll have stuff where like there's someone posts something negative.
• 12:39
  So I did a video for Tony's Place, which is an LGBTQ homeless shelter.
• 12:44
  And on Instagram, it was like, they did well on every platform.
• 12:49
  On Instagram, it was like, yeah, support.
• 12:52
  On TikTok, it was mostly support.
• 12:54
  Facebook, I literally like...
• 12:56
  do not have not looked since because it was just the worst of humanity.
• 12:59
  That was commenting.
• 13:01
  Just like really hateful stuff.
• 13:04
  And from me.
• 13:05
  You leave them alone, though.
• 13:06
  I leave them alone.
• 13:06
  Leave the comments alone.
• 13:07
  You don't delete it or anything.
• 13:08
  I'll delete.
• 13:10
  When I was posting stuff with my students, I very actively would monitor and delete.
• 13:15
  Yeah.
• 13:15
  Because if they're talking about a 17-year-old, 16-year-old, I'm deleting that, right?
• 13:20
  But if they're talking about me, sure, call me a faggot.
• 13:22
  Sorry, sorry.
• 13:24
  So on and so forth.
• 13:26
  I don't care.
• 13:26
  There's nothing that someone, a stranger in Duluth or wherever the fuck it is, I'm so sorry, everyone, can say about me that's really going to hurt me.
• 13:34
  I haven't said fuck once until just now.
• 13:37
  I've said it a lot.
• 13:41
  Vanessa said it.
• 13:42
  No, but like, the reality is when you go viral, there will be a lot of people that are supportive and there will also be people that want to hate on you just because you're going viral.
• 13:51
  And the reality of it is you have to be okay with those things.
• 13:56
  And I find...
• 13:59
  Just don't engage.
• 14:00
  Right?
• 14:00
  Like, I know some people might follow stay-at-home Tom on Instagram.
• 14:04
  He's massive.
• 14:06
  And everything he posts is incendiary.
• 14:09
  He's like, he's a stay-at-home dad, like a male feminist.
• 14:13
  I think he's great.
• 14:14
  But he gets so much hate in his comments from men that are uncomfortable with
• 14:19
  uncomfortable right with this man saying he's a feminist and like supporting women right um and he engages and it's part of his thing but like i couldn't do that i would just have to like leave it yeah so so when you go viral you have to sort of figure out like are you okay with the negativity are you not okay with the negativity you know and if you're not okay with it you need to find a routine that's not going to actually put you in front of the negativity
• 14:44
  Okay.
• 14:44
  So, so, okay.
• 14:45
  Say somebody here goes viral or even what I call semi viral, mini viral, some sort of something exciting.
• 14:51
  Um, what's your advice?
• 14:53
  Like next step?
• 14:54
  Um, is there something, should they change something, keep doing the same thing?
• 14:57
  Like what, what's the next?
• 14:59
  Yeah.
• 14:59
  So sometimes there's different reasons to go viral.
• 15:03
  So like when I went viral for the Japan saga, um,
• 15:06
  I couldn't replicate that content, and I also couldn't talk about it more than so many times before it was desperate.
• 15:13
  But I couldn't get stuck in Japan again with 34 students.
• 15:17
  And then Hurricane Barrel, we didn't have power, and my videos was like...
• 15:22
  the content was like me dancing to try to get a generator, me dancing to try to get center point.
• 15:28
  I was like doing a strip tease kind of dance in front of center point to get them to turn the power back on.
• 15:32
  Right.
• 15:33
  But, but then the power comes on and the story has moved on, you know, but what you can do is you very much study, you do an audit, right.
• 15:41
  Of your content and very much try to figure out what are people, what's resonating with people.
• 15:45
  Right.
• 15:46
  Is it,
• 15:47
  The actual trend, is it something you're doing?
• 15:50
  Is it where you're shooting?
• 15:51
  Is it the story itself, the current event itself?
• 15:55
  And you can try to replicate those things.
• 15:57
  So like, for instance, the fun classroom content, I very much was like, hey, if I have Takis and I dance to this one song by Migos, it goes viral every time.
• 16:06
  like every single time when I do the same exact, and I will repost like a throwback Thursday every once in a while where I use these old videos and they still go viral.
• 16:15
  And people will comment, I think I saw this four years ago.
• 16:17
  And I'm like, yeah, you saw it four years ago.
• 16:19
  You saw it last year.
• 16:20
  You saw it three years, yeah.
• 16:21
  So on and so forth, because it always does well.
• 16:23
  Right.
• 16:24
  And so I think...
• 16:25
  for anyone here, like whatever you're making, like very much lean into those things that do well.
• 16:30
  So like Christina, you do this really well with your, uh, queen of Tejano tribute content.
• 16:35
  We don't, you know, not Selena.
• 16:37
  Uh, and Caleb does this really well too.
• 16:39
  Brittany does it as well.
• 16:39
  We, we've had, we know what that magic sauce is for each of us and we are not afraid to beat it
• 16:45
  And, you know, just beat it.
• 16:48
  I don't know what.
• 16:49
  Just like repeat it, repeat it, repeat it as much as we need to.
• 16:52
  We've watched the same episode of Friends a million times.
• 16:53
  We've watched the same.
• 16:54
  I'm like, who cares?
• 16:55
  Yeah.
• 16:55
  Okay.
• 16:56
  Okay.
• 16:57
  I want to make sure we move on so we have time for questions in a few minutes.
• 16:59
  But my last official question for you is, so away from the viral conversation and on to just general social media growth.
• 17:06
  three tips, two tips, whatever, a couple of top tips for how to grow on social media, even if you're not going viral on a regular basis, but just growth, increasing following, increasing your views, increasing your engagement.
• 17:18
  A couple of just like juicy nuggets.
• 17:20
  Yeah, a little juicy nuggets.
• 17:22
  It's not just about you.
• 17:23
  It's about playing well in the playground, right?
• 17:26
  So commenting, engaging with other people's content is important, especially if there are people that are in a similar niche, location, business than you, right?
• 17:36
  So say you are just someone give me a business.
• 17:40
  A yoga instructor, right?
• 17:41
  So if you're a Pilates yoga instructor in town, like following and engaging with other Pilates yoga instructors in town, and then don't expect people to engage with your stuff if you're not engaging with theirs, right?
• 17:52
  So if you go to Kalem's videos, you'll see Christina's commenting, Brittany's commenting, Davina's commenting, I'm commenting.
• 17:59
  So on and so forth, because we're supporting each other.
• 18:01
  So that's important.
• 18:02
  It also tells the platform that you are a good member of that platform, right?
• 18:08
  And they will reward you sometimes.
• 18:11
  Other nuggets, you need to invest in, or not invest, I'm saying invest with air quotes.
• 18:19
  But good lighting, good sound are important, right?
• 18:23
  Good sound doesn't necessarily mean you need a microphone, right?
• 18:25
  But if you're in a place and the sound is not good, then you can't post that.
• 18:30
  You should not post that, you know, content.
• 18:32
  Make sure your lighting is well done, right?
• 18:33
  Those little things are what separates someone that's getting 300 views and someone who's getting 30,000 views, right?
• 18:41
  If you watch Britney's content...
• 18:43
  Notice it's always well lit, right?
• 18:46
  When I was in my classroom, if it was, I had two windows in this kind of old dark building.
• 18:51
  And if it was overcast at all, I could not, like we could do stuff, but it would never be stuff we actually used because it was too dark.
• 19:01
  Right.
• 19:02
  And so that's just like basic one-on-one.
• 19:05
  And like, I know you do the same thing with your like content at your house.
• 19:08
  Like we, you can't do it.
• 19:10
  Right.
• 19:10
  Or like, I have a thing I'm doing at Miller outdoor theater.
• 19:13
  I was supposed to do it like two weeks ago, but every day I've planned, it's like gloomy and not good weather.
• 19:17
  So I keep having to postpone it.
• 19:20
  So that's important.
• 19:20
  And then the third tip is like, I don't be afraid to be yourself.
• 19:23
  Right.
• 19:24
  And also like Brittany has said this a bunch, like if there's something you do well and something you do different, don't,
• 19:29
  do it on social, right?
• 19:30
  So if you can swallow swords or fire the fire situation, juggling fire, do it, right?
• 19:40
  If you can...
• 19:42
  you know, do a handstand, do it on social media, right?
• 19:46
  Use those talents, right?
• 19:47
  And I think a lot of people in this room actually do a really good job of that, of showcasing like who you are and not being afraid to do that.
• 19:54
  I would follow people that you like genuinely want to follow.
• 19:57
  Yeah, I don't want to follow you.
• 20:00
  But like, it's not, once you get, and also once you get to a certain size, like you can't, like you literally can't follow everyone back.
• 20:06
  They're also not going to probably care.
• 20:07
  It's not.
• 20:08
  I hope they do.
• 20:10
  So the social contract of Facebook as it was built, and that was like our first big, big platform, was like you had to be friends with someone.
• 20:17
  Right?
• 20:17
  So it's like a reciprocal agreement.
• 20:20
  But that agreement does not exist on TikTok or Instagram.
• 20:22
  Right.
• 20:24
  That's my opinion.
• 20:25
  But I will do like in real life.
• 20:26
  Like anybody here to me that we follow back.
• 20:30
  Because that's an actual connection that we made.
• 20:32
  But like if it's a stranger and they follow your account, you don't know.
• 20:35
  Yeah, like when I went viral, I would get messages from like teenagers that were like, follow me.
• 20:39
  And I'm like, no.
• 20:40
  Like I don't want this.
• 20:42
  I don't want this.
• 20:45
  so content creation is my part-time side gig.
• 20:48
  I have no team, although I will say like Clarissa works with me in my full-time job and she's shooting content at me right now.
• 20:55
  Um, or like if I'm going to something, I always try to like bring people to, so like Brittany does a lot with me.
• 21:00
  And so I, I try to bring someone with me who can like shoot content.
• 21:03
  Right.
• 21:04
  Um, and also isn't going to be like, when are we going to be done?
• 21:06
  Right.
• 21:07
  We're going to be done whenever I say we're going to be done.
• 21:08
  Yeah.
• 21:09
  No, no, that's true.
• 21:10
  It's true.
• 21:11
  So, like, my family, like, doesn't come with me because it, like, is not good for our family.
• 21:16
  And at the end of the day, it's work.
• 21:17
  Like, sometimes I'm getting paid and, like, it's work and, like, I have to do a certain thing.
• 21:21
  And it can be annoying.
• 21:23
  So I try to bring people that understand it and see the fun in it.
• 21:27
  We have fun.
• 21:27
  I think we have fun.
• 21:28
  So much fun.
• 21:28
  You know.
• 21:29
  It's ridiculous.
• 21:29
  Yeah.
• 21:30
  So it is just me, but I will say there are people that are...
• 21:34
  I know Hangry Houstonian is a big content creator in Houston.
• 21:37
  She has an assistant.
• 21:39
  And people have managers.
• 21:41
  I just like to do my own thing.
• 21:44
  I don't think you need it.
• 21:44
  At my level, at our level, I don't think you need it.
• 21:48
  So my content for...
• 21:50
  40 before 40.
• 21:51
  So what year?
• 21:53
  2025?
• 21:54
  So I would say six years.
• 21:55
  My first six years of content was not really location-based.
• 21:59
  I kept trying to break into Houston, and I just couldn't do it.
• 22:03
  People didn't want it.
• 22:04
  The style I was doing, people weren't interested, so on and so forth.
• 22:07
  When I was turning 40, I wasn't trying to do anything big on social.
• 22:11
  I just thought it'd be fun to do 40 new experiences before I turned 40, like the 40-day lead-up.
• 22:17
  And it was...
• 22:18
  It was things that I had been putting off, things that were outside the box.
• 22:23
  Everything was a new experience.
• 22:24
  Like nothing in that 40 days I had done before.
• 22:26
  I had never been to those places.
• 22:28
  I had never tried that thing before.
• 22:30
  And I think what happened, and it blew up, right?
• 22:33
  And that's what led to me being, you know, I get a lot of good stuff, right?
• 22:39
  Because of that.
• 22:40
  And it very much was, I think people love the joy.
• 22:45
  It's like this person is having fun.
• 22:48
  And also, we're old.
• 22:51
  It's wild.
• 22:52
  I know, I know.
• 22:52
  I know.
• 22:54
  No, but like when I, it's wild.
• 22:56
  Like when we go to influencer.
• 22:57
  My whole brand is based on the fact that we're not old yet.
• 23:02
  I'm going to get kicked out.
• 23:03
  No, but the reality is like when I, if I'm invited to an influencer event, whether it's like a new restaurant's opening or a Pilates thing or yoga, I am almost always the oldest person there.
• 23:13
  And so I think that's what resonated is you have, I'm showcasing things to do in a way that's not that different than the 20 year old, 25 year old doing it.
• 23:22
  But people who are middle aged or above are like, Hey, that's a, an actual adult, right?
• 23:27
  doing the thing, right?
• 23:29
  And having fun.
• 23:30
  And I think that is what, at the end of the day, connected with people, you know?
• 23:34
  I mean... You're an actual adult?
• 23:37
  I am, I am.
• 23:38
  I'm struggling.
• 23:39
  I'm still figuring it out, but...
• 23:42
  And the before times, but when I was in my 30s, you know, I was in New York.
• 23:47
  I was at a Broadway play and someone stopped me and was like, oh, my God, you're the guy who dances with their students.
• 23:50
  And I was in L.A. and people recognized me.
• 23:53
  And that was it.
• 23:53
  I'd have to be like a way to get recognized.
• 23:55
  And here, like every day of my life.
• 23:57
  Everywhere we go.
• 23:59
  Every day.
• 23:59
  It's like I could run for mayor.
• 24:02
  Yeah.
• 24:04
  What do y'all want?
• 24:05
  Y'all want me to fill the potholes?
• 24:07
  Yeah.
• 24:08
  Yeah.
• 24:08
  What else do you want?
• 24:11
  And honestly, I think this is the thing that no one wants to actually believe or accept about going viral is it is luck.
• 24:18
  It's skill.
• 24:19
  At the end of the day, you need some skill, but it is luck.
• 24:22
  And if you look at the most viral video from everyone in this room who creates content, none of us would say, yeah, that's the thing that would go viral.
• 24:30
  Your video with how different generations hit their shoulder on the door.
• 24:35
  When you posted that, you weren't thinking 80 million views.
• 24:37
  The Snoop Dogg shared that, though.
• 24:40
  Right, but like, and it's not the best thing you've done, you wouldn't say, but...
• 24:45
  You get right.
• 24:46
  Like you just luck sometimes happens.
• 24:48
  And like my my niche.
• 24:50
  So I don't at the time now, if I made commentary about Centerpoint Energy and the hurricane and what we're doing with, it would make sense.
• 24:58
  But like at the time, I was entirely posting classroom content.
• 25:02
  And then I just pivoted and was like, I'm dancing in front of a tree that's fallen.
• 25:06
  My fence is down.
• 25:07
  The tree's down.
• 25:08
  I have no power.
• 25:09
  I'm in a raincoat.
• 25:10
  So I would say if you have those moments where you accidentally go viral or you get that luck and it has nothing to do with your niche, well, it has something to do with something because you posted it, right?
• 25:22
  But maybe creating, maybe weaving that into your content, right?
• 25:25
  Like that kind of vibe.
• 25:26
  Do you agree?
• 25:28
  Also, cool.
• 25:29
  Welcome to my world.
• 25:31
  10,000 people in one day.
• 25:32
  Yeah.
• 25:32
  Awesome.
• 25:33
  Maybe you'll also like this other stuff.
• 25:35
  And I guess if not, they can unfollow you.
• 25:37
  Well, what I also do is sometimes I will strategically do a throwback video.
• 25:43
  So that video, whatever you posted that went viral, post that again in a year.
• 25:49
  And 10 months, a year, 14 months.
• 25:51
  And do it strategically.
• 25:52
  So do it, and then the next day or the day before, post your, like, mission video, right?
• 25:57
  Like, the overview of your business.
• 25:59
  So on and so forth.
• 26:01
  So that you get the views on, you know, the views will pancake.
• 26:04
  Not pancake, sandwich.