Latest / Hot Girl Energy Podcast / 37. how I manifested my dream job... tips to become a influencer in 2023

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37. how I manifested my dream job... tips to become a influencer in 2023 · Hot Girl Energy Podcast

0:13
Hello you guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Hawk rol Energy Podcast.
0:18
I'm your host, Kaylee, and this is your weekly reminder that it's
0:21
a new day, a new week, a new mindset, and another day
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for you to become the Hawk orl Energy you want to attract. Happy Tuesday,
0:29
you, guys. I am so excited to record this episode. This
0:35
episode is so long overdue. You have no idea. The amount of dms,
0:40
the amount of questions I get about my job as being an influencer is
0:45
insane, and I just feel like I'm finally ready to share all my tips
0:50
and share everything that I know when it comes to influencing. I will start
0:56
off before even getting into this episode, is that I'm still relative new.
1:00
Influencing has been around for I want to say, at least ten years,
1:04
if not longer, if not a bit less, and I've only been doing
1:07
it now for about two and a half years, so I'm still very new
1:14
to the influencing world. But I can say that I finally feel like I'm
1:18
at the spot where I'm ready to talk about it and ready to share with
1:21
you guys, just my journey on how I made it to this point in
1:25
my life. Where I can honestly say I'm so beyond grateful for this job.
1:30
I'm so beyond grateful to call this my job. And I've never felt
1:34
something so real for me in terms of like this was made for me,
1:38
Like I generally believe that this job was made for me. And I'm gonna
1:42
give you guys a bit of the behind story as to why I feel like
1:45
this job was so perfect for me. And I feel like I'm so genuine
1:51
and real on my platform, and that's what I try to do through my
1:53
podcast, through my socials and everything and everything that I post is just things
1:59
that I generally love and that just suits my style, if that makes sense.
2:04
So let's get into this episode. It's gonna be a long one,
2:07
I think, so we're just gonna get right into it. So let's start
2:10
off with me becoming an influencer and where it all began. So essentially back
2:16
in twenty twenty one, I felt very lost at this point in my life.
2:22
You know, COVID had happened, and you know, all of twenty
2:25
twenty I think everybody can relate that it was a lot of change and it
2:30
was a lot to adapt to change of you know, never leaving your home,
2:35
not being able to see your friends, you know, constantly on social
2:38
media because there was really nothing else to do, you know, watching random
2:42
Netflix shows. I remember watching that Tiger show on Netflix. I can't remember
2:46
it, but like, I would never watch that now. But there were
2:51
so many like you had such limited options as to what to do during COVID
2:54
that you were watching you know, weird Netflix shows and series and all that.
3:00
So I just remember it being such a dark time in my life where
3:05
I just felt so lost. And at that point, I was turning twenty
3:08
five, and I was like, what am I doing with my life?
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Like I don't generally love what I'm doing. Like I was working for a
3:15
health and wellness company, so I've always had a passion for health and wellness,
3:20
and I was working as a project manager there, so I was helping
3:23
assist with building stores across Canada. And once COVID happened, obviously my job
3:29
of opening up retail stores was kind of on a hold because nobody was opening
3:34
up a retail store during a pandemic. It just wasn't happening. So my
3:38
management and my team basically allowed me to do other things, working my nine
3:44
to five besides building a store, so I had other duties and responsibilities to
3:47
help out the small business because it was a small business that I did work
3:52
for, so we were doing everything we could basically just to support the business
3:54
through the pandemic. And so when I was going through that time of supporting
3:59
the business and all that, like I said, I just was going through
4:02
this dark time and in my own personal world of not feeling like things were
4:08
right for me, and so I felt like I needed to take action and
4:12
figure out, Okay, what do I actually enjoy doing. And so that's
4:15
what motivated me to get into influencing because I've always had a passion for watching
4:20
YouTubers, you know, taking photos on Instagram, posting aesthetic photos, all
4:25
that, and I've always loved doing it, but I never thought of making
4:28
it my full time thing. I was probably like you guys, where you
4:30
guys are scared and you're nervous and embarrassed potentially of like posting things that you
4:35
know your friends might make fun of you for doing. And I was right
4:40
in the same headspace as you. But there was something in the beginning of
4:44
twenty twenty one that just hit me where I was like, I want to
4:46
do this, like I want to try and do this. If things go
4:49
to shit, things go to shit. Like that's the way I saw it.
4:53
I was like, I'm gonna try and just be an influencer. I'm
4:57
gonna try and do it. I'm gonna see where things happen. So basically,
5:00
I was at this point though in the beginning of the year, where
5:01
I was like, do I want to become an influencer or do I want
5:04
to start a business? Those were my two things, and I'm like,
5:06
you know what, I'm gonna make a poll on Instagram. I'm going to
5:09
post it with my close friends. At this point, I only had like
5:12
two thousand followers on Instagram, not even and so I posted the poll and
5:15
it was a fifty fifty split. So I'm like, great, Like this
5:18
doesn't help. But then I thought to myself, I'm like, you know
5:21
what, I can always start a business down the road. I felt like
5:25
influencing at that point was still pretty like it wasn't new, but I felt
5:30
like, you know, TikTok was a new app, and I thought like
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TikTok was the best way to grow my platform because it was so new and
5:34
trending. So I'm like, you know what, I'm going to try out,
5:36
TikTok. I'm gonna try out, you know, posting short clip videos
5:41
and just see how it goes. So beginning of twenty twenty one, I'm
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thinking of strategies. I'm listening to podcasts, I'm listening to other influencers giving
5:48
their advice in terms of like what to do to become a full time influencer,
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what to do just even become an influencer at this point, and everybody
5:57
on the podcast and everybody that was sharing their tips was like, get on
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TikTok, start filming short clip videos. That's what everyone was saying. I
6:03
started off on YouTube and I wasn't seeing much growth at all, like literally
6:08
just posting vlogs about like day in my life. Like nobody wants to watch
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a day in my life when they don't even know who I am. Like
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that's the reality, Like coming from another influencer, it's like you need to
6:16
have a reason for people to follow you. And if I'm just posting a
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random day in my life in Ottawa and like people aren't going to watch it
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just because they don't know who I am. Like I haven't created a niche
6:27
for myself. I haven't created like something for a reason to follow me,
6:30
right, So on YouTube, I was literally just posting random stuff like,
6:34
you know, come to lunch with me, what I eat in a day,
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whatever, and I wasn't really getting much traction. So that's when I
6:41
started to get on TikTok. I started to post the most random stuff,
6:45
and honestly, guys, I personally think that's the best way to start is
6:48
to start posting different things like do a haircare routine, do some outfits,
6:55
do some cooking, do some whatever day in my life so or vlog style
6:59
mornings all that. Like, I didn't know what I wanted to post personally,
7:02
and I was also trying to figure out what my audience wanted to see
7:06
for me. So in the beginning, I was posting styling videos. I
7:10
love fashion, but I really wasn't seeing much attraction from the styling videos.
7:15
So I'm like, Okay, maybe I should be trying something else. So
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then I started to get into haircare. Wasn't seeing much attraction. Then I
7:20
was like, what am I passionate about? I kept telling myself, I
7:24
kept writing stuff in my notes in my phone. I'm like, what am
7:26
I passionate about what do I love, and I've always been obsessed with health
7:30
and wellness. I worked for a health and wellness company. I followed a
7:32
bunch of health and wellness influencers. I've always had such a strong passion for
7:38
my health, like finding you healthy recipes. I've always had a morning routine
7:42
that, you know, I just never thought of filming and posting. And
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so one day I just like woke up and I was like, you know
7:48
what, Like, I'm going to start posting like what I eat today.
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I'm going to start posting you know, healthy recipes and you know habits that
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I do in my morning that I love doing. And so I started to
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post on TikTok and I started to see my platform grow and I'm like,
8:03
hey, people are liking this stuff. And then at the time when I
8:07
was posting, there was also a trend about becoming that girl. And a
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lot of people can see the that girl trend as a very toxic trend.
8:16
But the way I saw it back then was it was a way to become
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your best self. It was a way to envision yourself as the girl that
8:24
you strive to become. And so that's the way I saw the trend,
8:26
and so I took advantage of the that girl trend. Again, here's an
8:31
idea as well, anything that's trending on TikTok, you want to take advantage
8:35
in your own content. So I saw that that girl trend obviously trending on
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TikTok, so I took advantage of that, and I'm like, okay,
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I'm going to tie the that girl trend into my current videos. So that
8:46
girl what I eat a day, that girl morning routine, that girl whatever,
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And then my thing just took off. I gained probably ten thousand followers
8:54
in two days. I think it was when I started posting that, and
8:58
it just in my mind, I'm like, holy crap, like ten thousand
9:01
people. That's a lot of people. And so once I realized that,
9:05
I'm like, okay, health and wellness is my niche, that's when I
9:09
started to take you know, trending sounds and trending topics or whatever, and
9:13
try and find ways to plug it into my current content. So then I
9:16
just started to keep posting like morning routines and you know, like I said,
9:20
what I eat in a day, anything related to health and wellness is
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what I started to post and then from May to June, I think it
9:28
was May first. In June first, I went from ten thousand followers to
9:31
one hundred thousand followers. And then that's when it started to become real.
9:35
I was like, oh my goodness, like this is becoming like a real
9:39
thing. And if anything, that's what really motivated me to keep going.
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I'm like, this is what I want to do, and this is what
9:46
I want to like make my full time thing. I started to post every
9:50
single day, and I'm talking like I would whip out my tripod, I
9:54
would film my mornings. I would spend like hours upon hours on my weekend
9:58
like filming healthy recipes, you know, just finding any time I could to
10:03
film content. And I'm not gonna lie. I did try my best to
10:07
balance my social life and my personal life when it came to you know,
10:13
friends and all that, but also like really focusing on social media. But
10:16
since we were in the pandemic at that time, there really wasn't a lot
10:20
of personal stuff that I had to worry about, Like I wasn't really getting
10:22
together with my friends obviously because of the restrictions, especially here in Canada.
10:26
There was well Ontario specifically, like you weren't allowed to be in gatherings or
10:31
anything like that. So I spent my weekends just pumping out as much content
10:37
as I could. And at that point, that's when my followers started going
10:41
up by like twenty to thirty thousand a day. And it's so crazy to
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even like say this out loud, because it doesn't seem real even saying that.
10:50
But that's when I started to get random emails from random companies saying we
10:54
want to work with you, like what are your rates? What are this?
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And I'm like, at this point, I have no idea what I
11:00
should even be charging people. I'm all confused. I'm like, oh my
11:03
god, Like people want to pay me to like put stuff on my platform.
11:05
Like I'm like, you, guys, where I know nothing about influencing.
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I strictly know influencing as like okay, like post content, post what
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you feel like all that. So I'm very confused at this point. I'm
11:16
like, I don't know what I should be charging. I don't know what
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a media kid is. So once again, I'm getting back on my computer.
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I'm finding podcasts and finding things on like how to create a media kit.
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What should I be charging for my kind of following all this. So
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I was such a beginner that I didn't even know what to do, where
11:33
to start, or anything like that. And so this is when my parents
11:35
were also like very involved. They were like, okay, like they wanted
11:39
to support me. My parents started to help me out and they're okay,
11:41
like, let's start helping you out with a media kit and just kind of
11:43
go from there. So at that point, my TikTok was the only thing
11:48
that I was really posting on, Like I wasn't really posting on Instagram at
11:50
this point or YouTube. So I start creating a media kit and I'm literally
11:54
putting the most random rates. I'm basing it off one you know thing that
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I searched on Google. There was like this website that basically showed how much
12:03
he should be charging per follower and all that. So I created this media
12:07
kit. Again, it's not a good media kit. Like looking back at
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it now, I'm like, this doesn't make any sense, Like I should
12:13
have been charging way more than what I did at that point. But again,
12:18
I had no knowledge in this space that I was merely just going off
12:20
of one website. And so when I was around eighty thousand, followers on
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TikTok. I can't be exact as to how many followers I had at the
12:28
time, but that's when I started to get people to reach out to me
12:31
and giving me brand deals. And these are like companies that I've never really
12:33
even heard of. So at this point I was just honored to even be
12:37
asked to promote a product and not saying I accepted anything. Like Obviously,
12:41
I was very strict on the brands that I did partner with because you know,
12:46
not to be open here, but there was a lot of like,
12:48
you know, sex toy companies reaching out to me, and I'm like,
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I'm not promoting a sex toy on my platform. Like it's funny now obviously
12:56
laughing about it, but you know, I was obviously very particular in who
12:58
I was going to work with because as someone who loves the health and wellness
13:03
industry, I really didn't want to promote something that didn't feel relatable to me.
13:05
It didn't feel real to me, it didn't feel comfortable for me to
13:07
promote. So I was being picky on the brands that I did except and
13:13
then I think my first brand deal, honestly, I think it was Bloom,
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which is a green powder company. I'm sure you guys have heard of
13:20
it. It's all over TikTok now. But in the beginning, Bloom was
13:24
definitely like focused on pushing ads through content creators on TikTok and so green powder
13:31
was something that I mean, I still drink on a daily basis. It's
13:35
something that I'm passionate about, something that I love. And I'm pretty sure
13:37
that was my first brand deal. And then I feel like once I pushed
13:41
out my first ad onto my platform, that's when more people started to reach
13:46
out. Because typically you put your emails in your bio. If you guys
13:50
didn't know that, that's typically how people reach out to you. And I
13:52
just created my own business email through Gmail. I didn't go through any other
13:58
special company. Again, this is all my own. I just did a
14:01
separate one compared to my personal one. That way I could track, you
14:03
know, brand deals coming in all that. So once I started to grow
14:07
a huge following on TikTok, I was like, Okay, maybe I should
14:11
start doing this on Instagram because Instagram reels at the time was slowly coming out.
14:15
But I know this is a lot of questions that you guys asked about
14:18
so I'm gonna get into that after. But I was honestly scared to post
14:24
on Instagram. I didn't know how I felt about it. I was like,
14:26
I don't know if I want to post on Instagram for my friends to
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see, because I felt like on TikTok, because there's a for you page,
14:31
it's like if I got on my friends for you page, whatever,
14:33
it's not a big deal. But because on Instagram you know friends from your
14:37
high school and friends from your college or you can see your feed all the
14:41
time, I was really stressed about posting on there. I'm like, I
14:43
don't feel comfortable, like I don't want to get made fun of. And
14:46
I remember my mom being the biggest support system through that time, and she
14:50
was like, look how fast you're growing on TikTok. Look at how proud
14:54
you are of yourself. She's like, why wouldn't you want to try and
14:58
start posting your videos on Instagram and see what happens. She's like, worst
15:01
case, nothing happens. It is what it is. But she's like,
15:05
who cares what these people think. At the end of the day, if
15:07
it makes you happy, then you should post it. And that's immediately what
15:11
motivated me to start posting on Instagram as well, as I'm like, you
15:13
know what, You're right, like, this is what I'm passionate about,
15:15
this is what I love. I want to start posting and see what happens,
15:18
and then boom, and that's when I started to blow up on Instagram.
15:22
Same thing I'm talking. I would wake up to probably ten thousand more
15:26
followers a day, like at this point, again with the pandemic, it
15:30
was absurd with how many followers I was growing a day. I'm definitely not
15:33
going that way anymore, just because we're not in a pandemic anymore. But
15:37
I felt like at that point, because everybody was on their phones and they
15:41
had nothing to do, I just felt like it just so many followers kept
15:45
coming all at once, and it was so overwhelming, but so like I
15:50
was so happy, Like I had tears in my eyes of just like being
15:52
so beyond grateful for allowing me to have that opportunity and allow myself to have
15:58
such an amazing port system and audience to support me through my videos and all
16:02
that, and so you know, over the course of the year of twenty
16:07
twenty one, I reached over two hundred thousand followers on Instagram and over five
16:11
hundred and fifty thousand on TikTok. At this point, combined with YouTube as
16:15
well, I had over seven hundred thousand followers on all my platforms, which
16:22
is so crazy to say, and at this point I still had a nine
16:27
to five. I did not quit my job when I had five hundred and
16:32
fifty thousand followers on TikTok and two hundred thousand followers on Instagram. And honestly,
16:37
one of the main reasons why I never left my nine to five at
16:41
that point was because I wasn't fully ready to fully commit to my salary on
16:48
my social media because I didn't have any good structure coming in. I would,
16:52
you know, some months I'd make really good money and some months I
16:56
didn't. And I wasn't ready at that time to make that commitment of fully
17:00
relying on my income from my social media. And so at this point,
17:04
this is when I was like, Okay, I think I've reached the following
17:07
to the point where I'm like, maybe I should start looking at management companies.
17:11
And I actually had a lot of management companies reach out to me through
17:15
my email when I started to get brand deals, but I ignored them all,
17:19
and I ignored them because I was scared. I was scared too,
17:22
you know, sign with an agency and you know, give some of my
17:26
percentage of my salary to them, because it's you know, it's definitely not
17:32
easy to commit to someone who's going to be, you know, vouching on
17:34
your behalf. Right Like, I'm gonna give you, guys a bit of
17:37
a rundown in some of your questions when it comes to management. But basically,
17:42
like your manager is someone who's bringing in your brand deals and all that.
17:47
And so it's a lot to sign a contract with a management company that
17:51
you don't even know, right, Like, you need to put your full
17:53
trust in them, knowing that they're going to be, you know, vouching
17:56
on your behalf, that they're going to be getting you the brand deals,
17:59
are going to be you know, giving you the kind of money that you
18:02
want and all that. So I personally didn't look for management until I was
18:06
ready to quit my nine to five and take social media full time. And
18:10
then June twenty twenty two comes around the corner. I get my brand new
18:15
home and I move into my house and I finally decided to make the decision
18:18
of leaving my corporate job and making influencing my full time gig. And at
18:22
that point I was in multiple discussions with multiple management companies as to who was
18:27
going to be the one that I signed with. I met with, I
18:30
believe for other management companies, and the one that I felt like was the
18:36
best for me was the manager that I felt I connected the best with and
18:41
I just felt most trust in her, and you know, based on some
18:45
of the other influencers she's worked with and all that, it made me feel
18:48
comfortable too sign with them. And I have been with this management company now
18:52
for just under a year. I signed with them in July of twenty twenty
18:55
two, so it's now April twenty twenty two, and can honestly say I
19:00
felt like I made the best decision in my life of going with management.
19:03
It has been the biggest game changer. I feel also a little bit more
19:08
less stressed with management now. I feel like a lot of people don't know
19:12
the behind the scenes of an influencer when it comes to creating content, but
19:15
also managing your emails, managing the contracts, managing the brand deals, that
19:21
ads, everything like that. There's so much behind the scenes that people don't
19:23
know, and having a manager is just so helpful. That really helps manage
19:29
that kind of side of things when it comes to contracts and all that,
19:32
and I can slowly just focus on creating the content, which is a part
19:34
that I enjoy, and just doing the things that I love. And so
19:40
now we're here, and I really want to get into the questions that I
19:44
asked you guys on my Instagram. I don't know if I mentioned this in
19:45
the beginning of the episode, but I went on my Instagram this morning and
19:48
I posted, well, wasn't this morning, It was like mid afternoon,
19:52
but I posted questions that you guys wanted to know from an influencer standpoint,
19:57
just influencing questions in general. And so these are going to be some of
20:00
the things that kind of early highlighted. But I just wanted to give you
20:03
guys a bit of a recap as to my influencing journey on how I became
20:07
one, how you know, I grew my platform all that. So this
20:11
first question is kind of something I already touched in my introduction, but someone
20:15
asked how to start, and so my personal experience on how I started was
20:21
TikTok. I posted consistently every single day. I tried totally different techniques,
20:26
totally different niches just to see like what worked, and then once I figured
20:30
out what worked, I stayed consistent with it and I posted every single day
20:34
for over a year and a half. And now with my platform, I
20:40
definitely don't say I post every single day, even though I probably should.
20:45
I feel like my content is very different compared to a lot of people because
20:48
I put a lot of effort in time into my editing when it comes to
20:52
my videos, and I feel like the quality of my videos now verse back
20:56
then are totally different. I feel like I've way more time and energy towards
21:02
good edits verse just a quick post just to get something up right. At
21:06
the time, I was focused on growing, So if you're focused on growing
21:08
your platform, I definitely recommend just pushing out as much content as you can.
21:12
Verse Now, for me, it's like I've already built the platform that
21:15
I've wanted to build. I really just want to build a connection with the
21:18
people that have started to follow me, and I just want to create good
21:22
quality content that I personally enjoy editing and creating, and then I'm proud to
21:27
posting if that makes sense. So it just depends on where you are in
21:30
your career. But if you're new and you don't know where to start,
21:34
I highly, highly highly recommend short clip videos, getting on Instagram reels,
21:40
getting on TikTok, figure out what you're passionate about, get a piece of
21:44
paper out right everything that you love doing, whether you have a passion for
21:48
haircare, skincare, makeup, you know, morning routines and anything like that.
21:52
Just write those things down and honestly, just try different videos on TikTok
21:56
of those type of things and see what does well. And if a lot
22:00
of people like your haircare videos, then start focusing on haircare tips. I
22:03
personally think that's the best way to start, is just figuring out what you're
22:07
passionate about and figure out what people like to see from you. Once they
22:11
figure out what they like to see from you, that's when you start to
22:12
create a schedule. You figure out, Okay, I'm going to post two
22:15
times a day and I'm going to create one educational video and then one like
22:21
esthetic video of me doing my haircare routine, whatever it is. But create
22:25
a schedule and then figure out, you know, how you're going to have
22:27
the time to create these videos. Are you going to be spending your nights
22:30
after work, Are you going to be spending your weekends, you know,
22:33
pumping out as much video as you can to edit throughout the week and post
22:37
throughout the week. So that's what I recommend if you're new and you're looking
22:40
to start just figuring out what you are passionate about, a schedule for yourself,
22:45
and when you're going to have the time to actually start editing and posting
22:48
the videos. When it comes to like finding editing platforms or anything like that,
22:52
when you're starting and you don't know what to do. I personally do
22:55
not film or edit any of my videos in apps, Like I don't edit
22:59
it through TikTok, I don't edit it through Instagram. Everything is done through
23:02
an external app. I use an app called inshot. I personally find it's
23:07
the best. I find it's really easy to use, and it's just something
23:11
I've been using literally since the beginning of my influencing journey. So if you're
23:15
someone who's looking to start to editing videos, the app is called in shot,
23:21
and that is literally the only app that I use to edit anything that
23:25
you guys see, Like all my platforms. Next question is how long did
23:29
it take you to grow your platform and what inspired you to grow my entire
23:33
platform? For where I am now, obviously it took me two and a
23:37
half years. I have over eight hundred thousand followers on TikTok, three hundred
23:41
thousand followers on Instagram, and almost one hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube. So
23:45
it's definitely a lot of people that I've reach But I feel like now I'm
23:52
at that point in my career where I'm maintaining. I just want to maintain
23:56
the people. I want to build a connection with people. I want to
24:00
just for you guys to get to know me. And so it took me
24:03
two and a half years to grow what I have now, So it definitely
24:07
isn't something that just happens overnight. But as I said, the reason why
24:14
I have the platform that I have is because I put so much time and
24:17
energy towards you know, creating content and posting content and all that. And
24:22
what truly inspired me was just watching a lot of the influencers that I watched
24:27
for so long. As I said, I've always had a passion for influencing
24:32
and what's crazy to me is that the influencers that I grew up watching follow
24:37
me on Instagram and like, to me, that's a pinch me moment.
24:41
I'm like, I watched you for years upon years of like you know,
24:45
even learning how to become like health and wellness, like just being obsessed with
24:48
health and wellness. Like I followed so many fitness trainers like Sammy Clark,
24:52
Chrissie Chella, you know, just so many other ones that I can't even
24:57
think of right now, and they both follow on Instagram and it's like that
25:00
is such a pinch me moment. They message me saying you inspire me,
25:04
like keep doing what you're doing, and I'm like that to me, like
25:08
I'm speechless, right, not even just like talking about that, Like Sammy
25:11
Clark, like I work with her with her form platform and all that,
25:14
and I'm like, what like that to me is like I feel like that
25:19
is such a touching moment for me because it's like I looked up to those
25:25
two people for so many years, and never in a million years did I
25:30
think those two people would be following me and messaging me saying that I inspire
25:34
them. Like that blows my mind and that's what inspired me in the beginning
25:40
was really to watch other influencers, you know, just share their passion for
25:45
what they are passionate about. And I wanted to be at that point where
25:48
I'm like, yes, I want to become an influencer, but I want
25:51
to share what I'm passionate about. I want to pose things that are real
25:53
to me. I don't want to be fake. I want to be real.
25:56
I want to be genuine, and I want to post what I'm passionate
25:57
about. So it's was really following other people that really inspired me to be
26:02
where I am today. The other question was how did you find inspiration on
26:06
what kind of content to post in videos, to create, planning your content
26:10
all that. So I kind of already touched on this as well, but
26:12
I was really trying different things. Obviously a lot of things inspire me.
26:17
I, like I said, I have such a strong passion for fashion,
26:19
but I don't really post much fashion on my platforms. I try and tighten
26:23
into my Instagram posts. I try and share, you know, whatever I
26:26
buy, things like that. So I have been trying to tie ways of
26:30
fashion into my platform now that I've grown my platform, because I have such
26:33
a passion for it. But I've always had the love for just health and
26:37
wellness, and so I think that's what you really have to do, is
26:41
just finding what you're passionate about to post. And then I kind of already
26:45
touched this as well, about creating and planning your content. Just finding out
26:48
your own schedule and making it work around your you know, nine to five
26:53
or whatever, you know kind of schedule you have for your work and finding
26:56
the time on the weekends and such like that to plan the tip content that
27:00
you plan to post. Okay, this next question is, yeah, something
27:06
that I'm still like working on it. I think every influencer is going to
27:08
say the same thing about this, But how to deal with haters and trolls
27:11
and how to not feel embarrassed from your friends seeing your posts. So I'm
27:15
going to obviously answer the first part with haters and trolls. In the beginning,
27:19
it definitely wasn't easy, but I signed up for this, is the
27:25
way I'm going to say it. Like, I knew going into this that
27:27
there was going to be hate and there was going to be people that were
27:30
going to tear you apart and bring you down, But I didn't let those
27:34
people get to me. Because I put myself in this situation. I knew
27:37
that this was going to happen, so I just feel like I almost prepared
27:41
myself for going into it. And if there's comments that I personally feel are
27:45
so bad to the point where it does bother me, I straight up deleted,
27:49
and then once I delete it, it doesn't really affect me after that.
27:53
I don't know why. I don't know if that's weird for me to
27:56
say, but if I delete something, I just feel like it's deleted from
27:59
my mind and I don't even remember it. So if you're scared of that,
28:03
I personally feel like, just don't take it personally at all. These
28:07
people are merely, you know, hating on you or ripping you apart because
28:11
they're jealous of you. They're jealous of you for actually making the effort to
28:15
actually being confident in posting what you want to post, and they're just tearing
28:19
you apart because they wish they were in your shoes. They're jealous. Whenever
28:23
someone is bringing you down or tearing you apart, there's some sort of jealousy
28:27
as to why they're doing it, So in my opinion, delete them from
28:30
your mind. Delete the comment if it bothers. You don't let them get
28:33
to you, because that's one person out of the twenty five comments that you
28:37
probably have on that post. That's all about positivity, So don't let that
28:41
one negative person bring you down. I think that's the best advice I could
28:45
give when it comes to haters and trolls, and I kind of already touched
28:48
about this when it comes to being embarrassed about your friends seeing your post.
28:52
I was obviously scared in the beginning posting on Instagram, but I went in
28:56
with the motive that you know what my mom said to me, which was,
28:57
why do you care so much about what other people think? Like,
29:00
at the end of the day, who freaking cares. If it's something that
29:03
you're passionate about, if it's something that makes you happy, if it's something
29:07
that makes you love what you do, then just do it. Frigate,
29:11
Who cares about those people? If it makes you happy, just do it.
29:15
I think that's that's the best advice I can give. I don't know,
29:18
that's what I say to myself, and look at me now, I
29:22
can honestly say it was the best decision I've ever made. Is just saying
29:25
frigate post that video, see what happens, and who cares what other people
29:29
think? And now I have people from my high school that I run into
29:32
at like random bars and Ottawa and they're like, oh my god, like
29:34
I haven't seen you so long, Like congrats to all your success, Like
29:38
you're literally killing it. I love your videos. Like someone who I thought
29:42
would have made fun of me is actually congratulating me and is giving me props
29:47
for the content that I create. So like, you honestly never know,
29:51
like what you know, why you think your friends might you know, make
29:55
fun of you or anything like that, Like you may have a friend like
29:57
that who actually like rewards for you posting and just not caring what other people
30:02
think. So don't put in that mindset where you feel like people are going
30:06
to hate on you. When actuality, like I felt like I had more
30:08
people come up to me and just you know, congratulating me and being so
30:12
proud of me to post that type of content first people hating on me.
30:15
Okay, I got a lot of this question which was about how do you
30:18
get brand deals? Do you reach out? Do I have a team?
30:22
Should I be reaching out to brands? Is their contracts involved? All that
30:26
when it comes to making money through social media. Essentially, so, as
30:29
I said, I put my email in my bio in all my social media
30:33
platforms and I didn't get reached out to until I hit around eighty thousand to
30:38
one hundred thousand followers. And then once I got reached out too, I
30:42
created a media kit. Again, you can find a lot of this stuff
30:45
on the internet now, which is great, But I created a media kit
30:48
based on what I thought I should be charging for a TikTok, for an
30:51
Instagram rail whatever. So I sent that and then they would come back with
30:55
an offer, right, and then I would you know, work around a
30:59
price point that I felt comfortable with in terms of what I would want to
31:02
make for that video, and then they would send a contract and then I
31:04
would sign the contract, make the video, post it, and then they
31:07
would send me payment from there. So that's essentially how you get brand deals.
31:12
As brands typically reach out to you, there is times where you can
31:17
reach out. I personally have never reached out to a brand that like I've
31:22
reached out to brands for gifting. For an example, if I wanted to
31:25
get gifted something and hope that you know, if I post it organically that
31:29
maybe there'll be a brand deal in the end. I've had circumstances like that
31:32
where you know, I've gotten a lot of gifted stuff from the brand and
31:34
then eventually it's turned into a paid opportunity. But I've never like reached out
31:38
to a company straight off the bat to like get paid. I've always worked
31:41
with people organically first, And what organically means is just posting like my normal
31:47
content in their stuff. And once they notice that, oh my god,
31:49
she's been posting a lot of our stuff, like, you know, with
31:52
no paid opportunity, we should probably pay her and give her a paid opportunity
31:56
since she's posting her stuff and loves it. That's how I kind of worked
32:00
it out. I've had multiple brands like that since where I posted them organically
32:02
and it's turned into paid opportunities, and some of them have even turned into
32:06
like monthly two yearly contracts just for me posting organically. So it's definitely worth
32:13
starting in the beginning just to take gifting opportunities and share it organically, and
32:19
you know, you can even reach out potentially in the next three months saying
32:21
hey, like, you know, I've been sharing a lot of your staff,
32:23
like, here are three videos that I created with your product. Like,
32:25
I'm you know, passionately, I'm very passionate about your brand. I
32:30
love what you guys promote, Like let me know if you guys have any
32:31
paid opportunities in the future something like that. You could definitely like email the
32:37
company and how to find emails. Again, that's just something doing on fresearch,
32:40
or you can even DM them on Instagram, just straight up asking like,
32:44
hey, I'd love to know what your marketing or PR email is.
32:49
I'd love to be in contact of a potential paid opportunity something like that.
32:52
You can always reach out on Instagram. I find that's the best way to
32:55
contact people. But yeah, that's essentially how I started to get brand deals
33:01
and how I started to get brand deals with people that I actually wanted to
33:05
work with, which was posting them organically first and then turning it into a
33:08
paid opportunity. Now, this question is how did you find management? Management
33:15
was something that reached out to me. I had multiple management companies reach out
33:20
to me since my platform did grow so fast, so I had to figure
33:23
out what management company I wanted to go with. Since I was very lost
33:30
at that time, in my life where I'm like, oh my god,
33:31
like I don't even know what a management company is again doing in my research
33:35
all that. Like my parents were totally against management, like they were like,
33:37
don't do it, like you're going to be giving them a percentage of
33:40
your sales all that, and I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing.
33:44
Like that's the thing. It's like if you don't know what you're doing,
33:46
Like management is so like essential to have, I find because they know
33:52
what they're doing. They know what you should be getting paid, like,
33:55
they know what you should be charging, they know you know certain things in
33:59
the contract that I ever knew about. They know everything when it comes to
34:01
influencing. And so for me, it was such an easy decision to sign
34:06
with management because, like I said, I was merely just going up things
34:09
that I saw on the internet and creating in my own media kit and all
34:12
that. And when my manager saw my media kit, like she was like,
34:15
yeah, like you got underpaid like a lot, and I'm like,
34:20
oh, I'm like I didn't know, like I really didn't know what to
34:22
do. And she's like no, no, She's like it's all good,
34:24
Like you're with us now, Like we're going to create a whole new media
34:27
kit for you. We're going to make sure that you are getting paid what
34:30
you deserve to get paid. Because she's like, you know, you take
34:32
a lot of time with your videos. You you know, spend a lot
34:35
of hours of you creating this content, like you deserve to get paid better
34:38
than that. And I was like, okay, Like I didn't know that.
34:40
So I personally find management is so essential even if you're starting out.
34:46
I don't know, management does sign with a lot of people, like even
34:50
if you have under like fifty thousand followers or anything like that, Like it
34:52
really depends on the agency I think. I think obviously, like bigger management
34:57
companies definitely signed with influencers who probably have a certain amount of following. So
35:02
you can definitely do your own research by looking through other influencers and seeing who
35:07
they are signed with. If you have a following that you're ready to,
35:09
you know, take on a management company and all that. But definitely,
35:13
I think in the beginning, I think it's worth just taking on your own
35:15
brands and you know, creating that connection with brands and starting to post,
35:20
because managers will start to reach out to you once they see you posting ads,
35:23
right, So at least that's how I think I got my management was
35:28
through posting my own ads and kind of figuring it all out on my own.
35:31
Okay, I only have a few more questions here. I'm trying to
35:35
get through them all as fast as I can. But how do you edit
35:37
your videos and get so good at editing? So funny story, I have
35:43
always been obsessed with editing videos, like I'm talking since I was like in
35:46
high school, Like I would edit videos just for fun, Like I would
35:51
record stuff, whether like I'd go on vacation with my family and I would
35:53
record different moments of me being on vacation, and then I would edit a
35:58
video and I would show my whole family. And then my parents are like,
36:00
you should post this on YouTube because this is at the time where like
36:02
TikTok or Instagram didn't really exist or Instagram existed, but nobody posted videos at
36:07
the time. So my dad and my mom would be like, you should
36:09
post this on YouTube. I'm like, oh my god, are you kidding
36:12
me? Like absolutely not, Like this is just for fun all that,
36:15
And I remember, like even in high school when I graduated, my mom's
36:19
like, so you know, what program do you want to go into college?
36:22
Like what do you want to do? Or university whatever, And I'm
36:23
like, I want to go somewhere that allows me to edit videos. And
36:28
my mom's like, edit videos, Like, You're not going to go anywhere
36:30
with editing videos. And I'm like, well, maybe I'll move to LA
36:32
and I'll become a director of a you know, a film studio or you
36:37
know, something involved with like being in the movies and editing movies and all
36:40
that. Like I just had such a love for editing videos or like you
36:45
know, getting into music videos and helping artists like edit their videos all that.
36:49
So I just knew I had this passion for video editing and just I
36:53
don't know, just like posting stuff on social media. I just had this
36:55
obsession with it. And so my mom was like, honestly, Kayleea,
37:00
I feel like marketing would definitely be something for you. And I'm like,
37:01
you know what, You're right, mom, Like I'm definitely going to go
37:02
down that route. And so once I was in marketing, it was all
37:07
about like promoting a brand new product, and my role specifically in my group
37:10
was all about the marketing in terms of like visually, so you know,
37:14
we had to do a commercial, we had to do the visuals of the
37:15
product. Like, I've just always had such a creative mind where I just
37:19
always loved taking photos, editing videos, all that, like just something I
37:24
was just always been so passionate about. So that's when I realized that I
37:31
had to make something involved in my career with editing videos. And now that
37:37
I get to, you know, do social media as a full time thing
37:39
and be able to do something that I'm so passionate about, is yeah,
37:44
something that I love doing, So getting get and editing, I mean,
37:47
I feel like that's just something that I've done for so many years that I
37:50
feel like I've really just I don't know, I just feel like it's like
37:53
a talent. Is that weird to say? Like I feel like I've just
37:58
always been really good editing videos and I always loved doing it. And I
38:00
feel like once TikTok came around, I had to adapt to different editing styles
38:05
because like obviously it wasn't like a typical YouTube video. It's like short clip
38:08
videos, so I had to really adapt to like fast pace and all that.
38:12
So, yeah, I already mentioned like the app I use Another app
38:16
that is really good as well is that's free on Apple is Oh my god,
38:23
I'm blanking. What the app is called. It's like that movie cut
38:28
something. Oh my god. The app is called iMovie. I'm literally blanked.
38:31
But I know some people that actually use iMovie on TikTok as well.
38:35
So that's a free app that you can use and edit through your laptop.
38:37
I personally edit through my phone just because I like to see the video like
38:43
physically on my phone when I'm editing, So that's how I edit my videos.
38:46
I don't know if that helps. Okay, this next question is do
38:50
you ever feel stressed about not having content and what's it like behind the scenes
38:53
of being an influencer. Yes, I definitely feel very stressed. I feel
39:01
like since I moved into my new house, and I think it's because I
39:05
feel like I think just this year in general, actually, like not twenty
39:08
twenty three, but twenty twenty two, I feel like it became such a
39:12
competitive industry of you know, how many influencers have become, you know,
39:17
a full time influencer, and just over the years, I feel like influencing
39:21
is just grown and grown and grown, and it's honestly kind of scary to
39:24
know, like how many people are a full time influencer. I think it's
39:28
pretty common now. I mean, I don't want to say in Canada,
39:30
but I definitely think in the States it's a very common job. And it
39:35
is pretty stressful when you see like some content creators like pump out like three
39:38
to four videos a day, if not more, And I'm like, why
39:40
can't I be like that? Like I almost beat myself up where I'm like,
39:44
I should be posting more content, Like I mentioned in the beginning of
39:46
this episode, is like for me, I'm not posting just a random video
39:50
of my face and like text about my head, like I'm going through edits.
39:54
I'm going through like actual like different clips from like different scenes, different
40:00
moments, Like it's full on different flog style videos. So I'm trying to
40:02
not beat myself up when it comes to posting every single day because I'm like,
40:07
at the end of the day, I am one person. I do
40:08
am I editing myself. I don't pay someone to do it. I don't
40:12
want to pay someone to do it because I enjoy what I do and be
40:15
I feel most authentic for me to and reel to edit my own videos and
40:21
post my own videos. So it's definitely stressful. I will not lie,
40:24
but I just keep pushing through it because I enjoy what I do. I
40:29
love what I do, and I would not trade it in for anything else
40:30
in the world. So, you know, I find ways to overcome my
40:35
stress. And you know, I also want to put my personal life involved
40:38
as well, Like you know, I'm getting married, I have a dog,
40:42
I have a house, like I have house, responsibilities of being an
40:45
adult, like I have to, you know, put editing and filming to
40:47
the side sometimes and focus on my personal life because I feel like if I
40:52
didn't do that, like I feel like I would probably be struggling mentally.
40:54
So I definitely find I need to, you know, put my job aside
40:59
and my personal stuff aside. I think if I, you know, was
41:04
just so focused on filming content, I just don't think my mental health would
41:08
be that great. So I just find the best ways I can to prioritize,
41:14
you know, my work and my personal life. I also feel like,
41:16
now since I have quit my nine to five job, I spend obviously
41:20
my nine to five filming content, editing content, recording podcasts, editing YouTube
41:24
videos all that. So I think, you know, quitting my ninety five
41:29
was the best decision that I ever made because it allows me to put more
41:31
time and effort towards my content and my platform, and I can spend my
41:37
nights like eating dinner with Zac and being with the little family that I have
41:42
and not have to stress about, you know, filming content or anything that
41:45
at night. Last question is if you were starting now as a brand new
41:50
influencer who has zero followers, what would be your biggest advice. I feel
41:54
like I've kind of already touched on this, but honestly, just start.
42:00
Just start posting shortclip videos and just figure out what you're passionate about. Just
42:05
write everything down, post different kinds of videos, post different type of editing
42:08
styles, all that. Just try and be as real as you can be.
42:13
Don't be fake. That's not going to take you anywhere. Like you
42:16
need to be your real self and post something that you're generally passionate about.
42:21
If you start posting stuff that you know you don't have a passion for,
42:24
you're not going to go anywhere. Like that's just the reality. You need
42:28
to just be fully passionate about it. That way you can you know,
42:30
create videos that you you love creating, and grow a following of people that
42:37
support you who also have that passion. Right, So, I think at
42:39
the end of the day, it's just all about being consistent, creating a
42:43
schedule for yourself posting videos, and just start posting, because if you don't
42:46
start posting, obviously nothing's going to happen. So you just need to really
42:52
get your content out there and just figure out what you enjoy posting. I
42:54
also hear like using hashtags really help, so figuring out what other influencers use,
43:00
what kind of hashtags they use to help them grow their videos. I
43:02
remember starting to use hashtags when I first started of just things related to the
43:07
niche that I was promoting. So obviously, as you guys know, health
43:09
and wellness, so I was doing like hashtag healthy girl, hashtag health and
43:14
wellness, just things that I would think we're trending. Figure out hashtags that
43:16
might also work for you to include into your content. I hope that kind
43:21
of helps for starting off as a new influencer. I feel like it's also
43:23
kind of hard because like what I did two years ago is definitely different than
43:29
what you could do now. But I think one key thing that I did
43:32
when I started was just doing so much research and figuring out, like what
43:37
people want from you, what people want to see, and what's trending right
43:40
now right I think trending is so important, and I think it's important just
43:45
to figure out what are people wanting to see, Like what are people what
43:50
do people like watching? What app or people using constantly? Like just figure
43:53
it out, and I promise you, like, once you're consistent and once
43:57
you're being you know, real and garing out things that you truly love,
44:00
you will start to see your platform grow. So that's a bit of becoming
44:07
an influencer and just some tips that I can give in terms of if you're
44:10
starting to become a content creator. Obviously, my journey has been only two
44:15
and a half years of becoming an influencer, but these are just some of
44:17
the things that have helped me through mine. I can happily say that I've
44:21
almost been a full time influencer now for over a year, and I genuinely
44:27
love what I do. I love my job. I love being able to
44:30
you know, also branch off onto so many different platforms like TikTok, like
44:35
Instagram, like YouTube, like this podcast, like I'm actually starting the beginning
44:38
stages of starting my own business. Like I've had so many amazing opportunities from
44:44
this job, and I'm so beyond grateful for, you know, really pushing
44:47
myself out of my comfort zone and just taking the risk of posting videos and
44:52
taking the risk of not caring what other people thought of me, and just
44:54
doing what I generally love and what I'm generally passionate about, and that is
44:59
health and wellnes and that is editing videos, and that is posting things that
45:02
I truly love. So I hope this gives you guys some motivation to start
45:07
growing your platform and start posting things that you generally love. As I said,
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I wouldn't trade my job and for the world, and I'm very,
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very grateful. Every single freaking day I wake up and I write my journal
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and I say how grateful I am for my job. I say how grateful
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I am for my followers and my supporters and everyone that just supports me through
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this amazing opportunity. And I don't know how long it's going to be with
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this job. I hope it's a long time, but I just want to
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enjoy the moments of me being in this industry and just enjoy the moments of
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me having this job and just waking up and just always feeling so grateful to
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be here. So thank you guys so much for listening to a another episode.
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If you guys are new, definitely make sure to follow the host,
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Kaylee, which is me on my Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. They're
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all linked down below. I also have our Hawk Grow Energy podcast linked down
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below as well. We are on Instagram we post all the updates with the
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episodes and all that. But thank you guys so so much for listening to
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a another episode. I love you guys all so much and I will see
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you guys in next week's episode.