The Bossticks - #17: How to work with Instagram, Reaching out to brands, and can women make the first move

Episode Date: June 28, 2016

On this episode we talk about Instagram and their new updates. We talk about joining the network PodcastOne, how to reach out to brands, and we discuss if women can make the first move.  To learn more about The Skinny Confidential visit the site HERE To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE

screwing that up, huh? Yeah. I'm having a little tequila blood orange. Right after your, right after your workout killing all that hard hard work. Hi,

everyone. We are back with the skinny confidential him and her podcast. If you are liking the show and it's brought you any kind of value, please, please let your friends know about it. Podcasting is very new

to a lot of people, so it's been fun to bring that awareness to this platform and if you could tell your friends that would be unbelievable we'd really appreciate it all the reviews that have been coming in have been for the most part super positive so uh thank you guys for that and the nance has been running around san diego letting everyone know that she was on the latest episode so i feel like she's told the whole entire town about it for those of you who didn't hear last week lauren's grandma the nans was on the show definitely one of my favorite episodes yeah it got a

really positive response i listened to it with her at taboo we went for sushi and wine and she was listening to herself on headphones, which took her 45 minutes to figure out how to work. And she thought she could be swifter. So next time I expect her to be swifter. And she also requested that we have a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for her with an air-condition room. You and your dad put a lot of pressure on her.

I thought she was great. No, she felt like she could have been a little bit more sassy with some champagne. What's up with the Edwards clan thinking every time you produce something good that it's not good enough? No, it's never good enough. Jesus Christ. Yeah, we never stop. So anyways, we're up here in Los Angeles, in our condo in West Hollywood.

We've been working up here until tomorrow. We've been running around all over the place. And it's the first time. Right now it's only me and Lauren on this show. We lost Taylor, lost Jordan. We lost everyone. We lost everyone. I'm a little grumpy today because it's been so nonstop.

And I just like my routine. I like to wake up with my oils and my candles and my detox drink. and we've just been on the go 24-7 and I'm a little bit tired. We're going to have to get used to it because we're going to be up here a lot more. When we first got this condo in L.A., it's because I was up here working a lot of. Weston had a furniture line up here that I was vested in, and we were coming up here so frequently that it just made sense to get a condo instead of staying in hotel every night. But then we kind of stopped coming up, but now we have been, we're coming up here a lot now.

I'd say we're up here like 10, 15 days a month. Yeah, we are. We're up here a lot. And if you guys have seen our house in San Diego, what it looks like, it's very white and airy and bright and, you know, marble floors. It's my fave. This place is small. It's very masculine, but with little tiny feminine touches. We will do a post on it. This is where you took all my bachelor stuff and threw it down here.

I stirred it away. Yeah. I have an old Yamaha 400 motorcycle hanging on the wall here, which. is like my pride enjoy. Are you going to ride it? Are you ever going to take it off the wall? No, it's not meant to be written. Actually, all it needs is electrical in a new seat and I think it can get going again. At the LA place is awesome, but I never can have my dogs up here and my dogs are my life. Well, you can, but they just lose it. So anyways, the reason, we're starting to come up here a lot more and we're excited to announce that we just partnered with a podcast network, which is if any of you watch our snapshats, you've seen us kind of having these meetings about the podcast. and we just recently partnered with a big podcasting network called Podcast One.

We are so excited about this. Yeah, we're really excited. For any of you that have Android and have been listening on Podomatic or have had a hard time listening, you can now download the Podcast One app and go to shows, and you'll see that our feed is now featured in there. And we're excited. It's a big network. There's a lot of big names on it.

I think it's going to up the production value. A lot of you guys have asked what other podcasts we listen to. and a lot of them are on podcast one. Some of my favorites are Heather Debrough, the housewife. She is so fun to listen to while I'm doing my makeup. I also like The Lady Gang. They're kind of a group of girls that just tell it how it is. Who else do we like?

You like... They have Adam Carolla. He's big. He's more of a traditional radio show, but also they have Stone Cold Steve Austin, who you wouldn't think I would listen to, but I love Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Texas Rattlesnake from back when I was a young sprout.

I would watch WWF at the time. Now it's WWE. A young Sprow. Yeah, I don't know if that's what you call it. So, yeah, it's going to up the production quality. We actually now have access to a studio. So we're going to up the guests. We're going to start bringing in more people.

We're going to start doing some live shows. Hopefully we're going to start going around the country doing a couple live shows. Yeah, and speaking about that, you guys, I did a meetup post on the Skinny Confidential, and I'm going to go ahead and put that link in my Instagram bio and on Twitter because I need to know where we can meet up. I want to meet you guys. I want to meet you in person. I want a live podcast with Michael. Also, I want you to bring your computers to the meetup and I would love to help with any blogger tips.

If you guys are bloggers, I can give you tips and tricks and things that have worked for me in person. I'm even happy to look at your blog and kind of help you, I mean, in any way I can. I don't know how amazing I am in it, but just help you to make the best blog you can possibly make. And you guys can show me your blogs and share what you're doing if you're not a blogger. I just want to meet you guys. So I will put that meetup link in my Instagram bio, and I also will do a couple snaps on it. I would love to know I have a survey on the blog where we should meet up. So yeah, we're just pumped.

Expect a little bit more production, expect a little bit more value. Nothing overly produced, though. No, we're just, I mean, we're excited because we launched this thing literally out of our house. Some of you that watched the earlier ones, we filmed it and put it on YouTube and spoke and put it on podcast or on audio. So, I mean, we just launched a really, really raw version, and it's pretty crazy to see how far. come and now we're going to be with a professional network who's going to be really helping us get the level of quality that we should have and should have from the beginning. I mean, let me talk about you guys for a second off that. If you have something that you're thinking

of launching and you don't want to launch until it's perfect, launch it. Launch it. Oh. I'm starting to agree with you. Now you see. Yeah, I do, honey. So I think if you guys have an idea, sometimes you just have to launch it and it has to be raw and you just grow with it and evolve with it. Michael's really taught me that. I'm so happy that this, like, that you're saying this now because I've been preaching this for, you're right. What is this week 17? But I've been preaching to you for a lot longer, but 17 weeks of podcast.

What are your two favorite words to hear? You're right. You're right. Yeah. You hear them once a year if you're lucky. So you're right about that. What's hard knowing you're right and not hearing the words. Here's the thing.

Okay, so the story of the skinny confidential I've told it on here, but just so I can just go back for a minute. So I took a year and a half to launch the Skinny Confidential. And what it came down to was I was nervous to put a product out there that wasn't 100% perfect in every single way until I was 100% satisfied. So I went back and forth with a web designer. I had all my colors laid out. I had this huge binder of like magazines and doctor recommendations and all this stuff. And I wanted to be so prepared.

So I actually could have launched the Skinny Confidential a year and a half before, but I just wanted to be perfect. would have been... I know, I probably should have launched it. So the point is, is... One night we were sitting at Morton's over oysters and chilled martinis, and I was talking about it, and Michael said, just launch it. It's like either shit or get off the pot, man. You were like, shit or get off the pot.

And I ended up launching it a week later. So the point is, is if you guys have something that you're, you know, thinking of launching and it's not perfect, launch it out and grow with it. And that's what we've done with this podcast. And, I mean, I think it's worked well. I think we still have a long way to go. Listen, I want to tell everyone out. out there that if you're searching for perfection, you're never going to find it.

Why, Michael, I'm searching for it. Because everybody's, it's like setting goals, right? You set a goal and then you reach that goal, and by the time you get there, you're disappointed because you've set the goal. You've either missed the goal and you're disappointed about that or you've made the goal and then it's like, okay, what next and you're disappointed again. So it's like it's more about strategy and systems and getting stuff out there and just, you know, taking a chance.

Rip the Band-Aid off. Launch it. If you guys want to be a blogger, be a blogger. It doesn't matter what age you are, how old you are. Or do it. No, just be consistent and have steady progress on a daily basis. Just do a little bit more today than you did yesterday. So yeah.

So anyways, moving on from that, we got, we had a pretty wild weekend. I mean, I wouldn't call it wild. No, I mean, there was a lot going on, though. We went on a podcast, a different podcast. Yeah, let's talk about that for a second. So my godparents, who I lived with for four years, rent-free, shout out to Mike and Jen. I was so poor and so broke and bartending and teaching pure bar and Pilates.

and Mike and Jen let me live with them for four years. And everyone said that when I moved in with them, our relationship wouldn't work out and we would end up in some huge fight. Well, it's been years later, and we're not in a fight. We're still very, very close, and they're like some of my best friends. They're like second, or no,

they're like third parents to us because we have so many parental figures in our life now. And that's, by the way, because everyone always asks this. I need to touch on this. People ask all the time who watches our, dogs. Yeah. No, I mean, God bless Mike and Jen. We leave and we have to run around so much. And honestly, we love our dogs so much, but it would, it wouldn't be possible to have those dogs without Mike and

Jen and our lives. Well, we could never leave them at a pet resort. I think they would like be hanging from the ceiling or something when we came back. No, I wouldn't leave them. I don't trust anybody with that. I trust Mike and Jen with them. So Mike and Jen also, they've had chihuahuas and little dogs their whole whole life. They have two little chihuahuas right now, Abby and Ricky. So when Boone and Pixie go over there, it's like a whole chihuahua squad. And then they have clothes. with a little miniature. Is she a miniature poodle? She's a miniature poodle. And so there's five dogs. And that's where they go. And they drink Evie on water, lay in the sun on a Chase Lounge. And those dogs live better than me.

Eat organic turkey. So yeah, that's where the dogs are. Anyway, so Mike and Jen have a podcast. It's called Rinkled Not Dead. You can find it on iTunes and on Podomatic. And basically, it's just about them being over 50 and exploring this new internet age. Like just kind of how to be in this generation and how to learn. They kind of had to learn how to evolve. No, but what, you know, Lauren and I were speaking with them. And to give you a little background on them, they both have done professional voiceover work their whole life.

And Mike actually used to be on traditional radio. So we said, hey, you know, why don't you guys do a podcast and talk about what it's like going through the decades and getting older and evolving with technology and like evolving with the internet age and social media? and it's been really awesome to watch because they've done really, really well. They've killed it. I'm so proud of them. And it's amazing to see from when they started to now.

And I definitely recommend you guys check out their podcast. Michael and I are on it. And we're talking about the years that I used to live with them. It's a little bit of a behind the scenes. A little BTS. I would come home at like midnight and Jen and I would talk for an hour. And then I would work on the Skinny Confidential and go to bed at like three. So again, launch fast and improved, and that's what they did.

And you can see now they have a successful podcast, and there's a lot of new opportunities for them that they would maybe not have found if they had not launched fast and not have gone into this new medium. And I'm excited to see what it brings to them. But this just shows that anyone of any age can do this. Anyone can do whatever they want. It doesn't matter how old you are. You just have to have the content.

You have to have the talent. You have to put in some work and be consistent. It's work. Yeah. Shit, the Nans should launch a podcast called The NAN, speaks or the nan's drinks. So then we did that and then the next day, what do we do? We just laid by the pool.

I just did nothing again. I got a real nice tan. We had to watch some dogs. We laid by the pool and hung out with the dogs. Lauren says I got a sunburn, but I'm looking pretty tan and pretty good. If you call bright red tan, then I guess you're tan. And then the next day, which was the worst for me, but good for Lauren, is we had to go to Vegas. So we went to Vegas to work with Snapchat on their live story.

Snapchat does live stories of each event, and we were working together on a collaboration of me kind of reporting BeautyCon. BeautyCon's in Vegas. It's actually initials or IBS, which is interesting. Do you know how many brownie points I should have from going to BeautyCon? Yeah. I'm going to give you a couple brownie points to everyone right now. No, not a couple. I need like a sack full.

Michael is such an amazing fiancé, you guys. Yes, keep it coming. Okay, Michael, like, don't get excited here. Keep peppering it. He is really the most amazing fiancé. For him to get on a flight with me and go to Vegas for 12 hours was amazing. Not just Vegas, beauty con. And I had to walk through all the casinos, which I love, and I had to go through all the pool areas, which I love and all the good restaurants.

And nope, couldn't stop, couldn't go. Had to go to BeautyCon. You got your goddamn pancakes, though, so. No, I got some pancakes at my favorite restaurant in Vegas called Tablo. But, no, I mean, I'm there. Lauren's getting hair and nails. I was getting hair, nails, makeup, spray tan. I was loving it.

I was nippity snapping away. These guys were trying to touch my hair. I was like, I don't think so, buddy. Yeah, no. He won't let anyone touch his hair. It's so weird. No. But yeah, Michael is such an important part of my brand and my life.

And for him to be able to come out on a win like that with me in Vegas for 12 hours. It was really amazing. I love you, honey. Are you tired? No, I still need some more brownie points. I'll get them later. You can make it up to me later. Ew, that's sick.

So, yeah, so that's what we've been doing. That's what up to date in our lives. We're in L.A. now. We came back from Vegas. We went to bed, immediately got up the next day and came to Los Angeles. We've been working up here all weekend. I'm grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. We'll be here until tomorrow night or Thursday morning.

Tonight's our day night. Tonight's the day night. Lauren's going to surprise me. I actually know where we're going, but so it's not so much surprise. So anyways, let's get into the show. We have some good questions this week, and I want to get into it. So Lixor Lorenz, this came from Instagram, that's the username, asks, how do you feel about girls making the first move, text first, going up to a guy at party first, et cetera, and whether it seems obsessive or not, can you also talk about sliding into DMs? Sliding into DMs.

Do you want to start with this? You want me to start with this? start. You can go ahead and start because I actually want to gauge my opinion. First of all, it's 2016. It's okay to make the first move. We don't live in 1927 and women aren't wearing those underpants that are like those old white like pants that are underwear. You remember those things? So yes, it's okay to make the first move like we live in the modern age and I think I've done a post on this. If you if you want something with how busy and how much interaction there is on social media, I think you should pursue it. And I think men will respect you more for doing that.

I mean, don't come out like a bad out of hell and go crazy, but it's okay to definitely initiate a conversation and show some interests. Like, how are we supposed to know? Right? Like, the fears on the guy side is just as much as it on the girls. I would love it if girls made the first move. Well, not anymore. Lord's looking at me weird.

You're dead. Back then, you know, it's like, shit, guys are just as intimidated. And it's really hard for us to gauge, like, is she interested? Is she not, especially with all the games you girls play. Quit with the games. I'm going to say that I disagree with you. You don't think they should ever make the first move. Here's the thing.

I would never make the first move, ever. But that's just the way I am. It's so funny because I'm very dominant in certain things, but when it comes to men, I want them to do all the work. Yeah, but that's not realistic. I know, but I'm just being honest. Like, I have to be honest. This is the problem, girls, is you're taking advice from other women on the subject.

Yeah, maybe I'm not the best person to ask this question to. I mean, do I think it would be weird if you made the first move? No. But for me, if I was in a bar, I wouldn't want to walk over to a guy and be like, hi, I'm Warren. This is the fundamental problem, though, with society, is that there's other women telling other women that it's not appropriate when the men, who you're potentially making the first move on would love it if you made the first move. Okay, so there's the answer.

I'm speaking from experience as a man. at least last time I checked I was a man, you know? Are you sure you're not a eunuch? No, but I'm serious. Like, it's okay to make that move. Guys, I think, would appreciate it. I think they'd be off put by it. It's not like you make a move and the guy's like, oh, that's weird.

She made a move on me. Like, he would be super pumped on it. He'd be flattered. I know, but I just want the guy to do all the work. Yeah, I know. But so if you like somebody and you think that there's a potential that something could happen, like don't let that opportunity pass, especially because with the way,

Sometimes you girls don't show that you're interested, and we don't know, and then we don't make the move. Yeah, it's called a game. We all play it. Let me talk about sliding into your DMs. If I was to slide into a guy's DM, I love the way she asked this. I just want to keep repeating this. I would slide into his DM in a very witty way. Like, I would say something that was funny and witty. I would definitely not be like, hi, I'm more and like, do you want to grab cocktails? I feel like that's boring. I'm being honest, Sarah. It's boring. Like yon, yon, yon. No, you should, I mean, there's like, there's like multiple things that you could just send like the typical selfie or like the body shot. No, no, no, no, no. That's sending a different message. That's sending the message that like, hey, I'm ready to go. When guys used to send me a selfie, I used to be like, not with that selfie.

We don't. Guys should not send selfies on. Especially one guy, oh, one guy sent me a selfie and it was face tuned. That's a no. That's a no out. I would go for something Woody. Go for something that's funny. So now you're saying it's okay to make the first move?

I'm talking about sliding into DMs, only sliding into DMs. I would not approach a guy at a bar. I would maybe like give him a look, like approach me. But I would not go up to him and be like, hi, I'm Lauren. It's just not my style. Okay, but that's not your stuff. But girls, I'm saying that it's okay. It's 100% okay to make the first move.

It's 2016. But I feel like you're still in. You don't need a chaperone to take a walk down the street with a man. Like you don't need to wear like the dress down to your ankle. We live in the modern age. It's okay to say hello to someone and let them know you're interested. Because if not somebody else is going to and you're going to miss the opportunity. Good.

So that's good advice from a guy. Yes. So that's that question. I would love to see if you and I were in a bar what would happen. Like we didn't know each other. You just, I would probably just have to make the first move, right? Yeah. I would ask for a skinny margarita on the rocks and we would take it from there.

I wouldn't be in a bar anymore because I'm too old and I would be too tired. I would meet you in a retirement home run at the early births, special at soup plantation. So that question's a simple answer for me. Maybe not so simple for Lauren, but yes, it's okay to make the first move, do it. Or slide into his DM in a funny way. The worst thing that can happen is the guy says no. And then like, okay. You don't want to do with someone that says no anyway. Yeah. Don't, if he says no, maybe be careful on the way you convince, but that's a whole other topic, which we won't get into right now. So anyways, then we're up in LA right now and we did some interesting stuff yesterday. We went to Maker Studio, which helps Lauren with her YouTube channel and is helping

her get her content out there. And they had some people from Instagram there. And it was really interesting because they were doing a seminar and giving us all the new updates on Instagram's new algorithm, the new analytics that they're coming out with, all the new tracking platforms. They were talking about what's working and what's not working. They were talking about all their new video content. And we got a lot of really useful information. So I shared some of the information on Snapchat, but some of you guys wanted me to elaborate a little bit more. It seems like Instagram is going in this terrain that's more raw and real and authentic, the curated image of the coffee cup next to the keyboard with a macaroon, like macaroni crumbs slowly cascaded around

the macaroon is out. What's in is just more raw, real video, less curated. Also, as far as Captions go, they said the more creative you can get with that, the better. And they also said that you should read your audience. So if your audience loves that when you post two times a day, you should post two times a day. But if they want you to post more, then post more. You can kind of gauge that and feel that out. But what was really interesting about the meeting is that they're rolling out analytics, which will be great, don't you think?

Yeah, but the analytics are still going to be a little bit behind. It's only analytics for each individual picture or post, which I think is kind of annoying because you can't compare a set of 10 or the overall. You have to look at each one individually. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought you could do everything. There's an app you guys, or it's not an app, it's a website. I'll leave the link on Twitter. I think it's called Icon Square.

I have it and it tells me when the best time is to post and what photo did the best and, you know, what captioned did the best and what got the most engagement. So that's what I've been using. But Instagram is going to be rolling out a microanalytic for each person. So that should be interesting. So this is interesting that you said that because according to their to Instagram and their new algorithm, where you used to be able to figure out the best time to post and ways to strategize with that. It's different now. Like, you know, like have you ever posted a picture or something and it gets like no traction

and you get all scared and you delete it? I've done that a couple times. Everyone's done that. Okay. So what they're saying is don't delete it. any longer, let it sit because the new algorithms is slow and steady wins the race. And the way they serve your pictures on the feeds is a little bit different now. So it needs time for the algorithm to pick it up. And it's it's no longer a game of like instant traction because people aren't

seeing your picture immediately. Okay. Well, that's good to know. Yeah, I think that that Instagram is definitely evolving, which I respect. They're not just being like, oh, no, we're only going to do curated pictures. They're adding video. They're adding live feed. They're switching it up. I'm telling you, though, guys like me, marketers are going to ruin Instagram. Like, it's already happening. Because they're adding advertisement. Yeah, because you're going to get a guy like me that's going to come in and put some advertisements in Instagram for whatever product. And it's going to start ruining the space the same way Facebook did. So what they're trying to do, I think right now is say this whole like authentic and da-da-da experience. But I think that's a play to get users back that has.

maybe jump shipped to a Snapchat. And so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I firmly believe that any platform that allows advertisers like myself or anybody else, it's a matter of time before the experience is a little bit ruined. And you're still obviously going to have a need for these social platforms. But the traction you used to get in the return on investment that you used to get is definitely not going to be as high as it used to be. The engagement's definitely going to go down.

I know that for sure. What you just said about how as companies grow, they start to let advertisers take over. Well, they need revenue. Right. So on the Skinny Confidential, I've decided to do the opposite of that. So as the blog is grown, I decided to remove all ads off the site. So there's no ads on my site anymore. We did add something, though, called Pub Exchange, which is, explain that to everyone.

Public Exchange is a traffic sharing source. So you partner with different content sites. like if you wanted to partner with the Vanity Fair, for example, some of your articles would show up on their site and some of theirs would show up on your site and you kind of share audiences. So it's different than advertising. But it's, it's no one's getting paid. Like it's not a traffic sharing source. Yeah, I think that you have to do what works for you and what works for the screening confidential is not having ads all over my site. It's just, it's not part of my experience and the user experience. That's fine for your experience. But then again, if you do, if you are a blogger and you do want to have ads and monetize. Then that's fine too. It's just all that, it just depends on the strategy. you're going for. And there's multiple strategies and multiple ways you can monetize a blog or a social platform. Do what works for you? Yes. Okay, let's do the next question. Okay, this is an Instagram question it says. Natasha asked, is it possible to go viral on Instagram? There used to be an explore page, but it's different now. Well, it's not possible to go viral as it used to be. So if any of you remember the old explore page, there was a lot of people and a lot of Instagram accounts that got very good

at manipulating the algorithm and figuring out how to populate themselves at the top. So that's not the experience that Instagram wanted. So they actually got rid of the Explorer page in that sense. And they made it more difficult for, you know, that one big Instagram star to populate all the time. And they made it more about a curated feed for things that you tend to look at. So if you like watching certain types of videos or if you like watch. It's curated specifically for you. Or if you start liking a specific blog.

blogger or a specific clothing line or like if you start liking Star Wars, it's going to start populating more of that information. It's the same thing that Facebook did. They put it in front of the right demo. Yeah, it's not possible to go viral in the traditional sense. Nothing on Instagram has ever been viral for me, by the way. It's been something, again, where I've worked at it every single day and posted an image at least once a day, which I recommend to everyone.

The best way to go viral right now, in my opinion, is with the new videos that they're rolling out. They're doing these promoted stores. I don't know if you've seen them. Like there was a soccer event on yesterday. Yeah, you have to make sure the geotags on all your photos, though, to get featured. So make sure you're always checking into the location or the area of where you are. And they're really pumped right now on video content, which is why they just increased their their video time lapse from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. So right now, if you can get some good video content on there and geotag it, it's going to do really well. Basically, what I've seen to work and what I think they've seen to work is when you post a video, you get a lot of tags,

where people tagging their friends. And so that brings people to your page. And then the pictures and the curated stuff helps people engage on your page. So you kind of need to have a combination of both video to bring people into your page, pictures and mini-blogging to keep them engaged. Yeah, I think have you seen The Fat Jewish? Is that his name on Instagram? Yeah.

Yeah, he grew his brand completely by the whole, basis of his brand has been people adding each other on his quotes. And I think it's really cool because now he's like launching product from Instagram. He's, I think he's launching a show. I mean, there's so many people that have created a brand off Instagram. So if you do want to grow on Instagram, just make sure you are at least posting once a day. And that's recommended by Instagram, not me. Well, it's funny because we were talking and it's like people were trying to figure out what's the best time to post.

what's the best way to post. Everyone's different. You know, some people post three times a day. Some people post five times a day. Some people post once a year like you. Yeah, like me. I'm not very good at Instagram. It's not my thing so much.

But what I would say is you start posting once a day if you're going to use Instagram as a tool and figure out what your audience responds to. If you can tell that they want more, start posting a little bit more per day. Or if you can tell, hey, this one post is really good each day. Maybe just stick with one. Don't feel pressure to post. Instagram content just to post it just because you feel like you need to hit multiple times a day. That doesn't necessarily work.

I am all about reading my audience too. I let my audience kind of dictate the way. So I think it's really important to like listen to what they're saying and listen to their recommendations and engage with them and understand them. And that will lead you kind of how to grow your Instagram. For instance, if you see that a smoothie picture is doing really well on your Instagram and they like it because you've shared the ingredients, then share more of that. I mean, it's not really rocket science.

You just really need to let your audience kind of dictate the way of where you're going with your brand. I think that's been a huge, you know, game changer in how I've grown the skinny confidential too. I've let the audience kind of set the tone and pick, you know, what blog posts they like best, and I've done more of that. So just to make sure you're really reading your audience. Yeah, no, I agree 100% with that.

and it's really interesting. I think Instagram, I think you're going to see in the next six months Instagram go through some pretty major changes. I wouldn't be scared about your engagement dropping off. Just know that if your engagement is dropping off, it's because people like me are in the space advertising, and whenever that happens, people get sick of it,

and they start scrolling a lot faster. So don't be alarmed that it's your content or that you're doing something wrong. Just know that they've rolled out ads into the platform. And get on Snapchat, too. Yeah. Do it so stupid that they're doing? What?

They won't let you put links in your text because they don't want to take people out of Snapchat. No, it's not stupid. Out of Instagram. It's not stupid. But they'll let people like me go and pay for ads and then they'll let those ads link out of Instagram. Well, that's because they're making money and monetizing off the ads. So it's actually smart. Well, it's smart if they want to monetize.

But it's watch, the engagement will go down. I'm 100% positive on that. Okay. Well, we'll be watching Michael Bostic. So today we did a, we did an interesting, we had an interesting, meeting we met with some Chinese entrepreneurs from China from Beijing and I've been kind of going back and forth with them on behalf of Lauren for her brand for the last few weeks and we didn't really know if this was going to be a good meeting or a bad meeting or what it was really going to be about but it was

actually really really interesting some of these guys have some of the biggest social media apps in China like Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat are banned in China as you know so these guys have created things like WeChat or Wemo and these things, some of these platforms have hundreds of millions of users in China. It makes you feel like kind of a flea when you are around them because there's so much engagement going on in China. To meet with them was very interesting and hear about the influencer culture over there. They are very much geared towards e-commerce and business while over here were more towards creativity and content. So that was really interesting to talk with them about the differences between Chinese and U.S. influencer culture.

There's so many people over there. I need to get some commerce going. I need some Chinese commerce. Why don't you go sell your body on the street? No, I can't. So yeah, I mean, we're excited. It's all about building a global brand and we're just now getting into conversation and how we can get over there. Lauren wasn't such a fan of Beijing. I think she lived off croissants. Well, you would live off croissants too if the only option was pecking I didn't mind the pecking duck I minded the pecking duck when you ate it I was not around you

Actually one night I got blocked out on pecking duck Actually you didn't get blocked out off pecking duck You got blocked off a black I think it was what was it Chinese tequila? There's a Chinese tequila over there That's like a rice liquor Yeah it's like a rice liquor So I'll tell this story because it's a funny story

And I want to pepper and some funny stuff now because it's been kind of a serious show And we went over to Beijing and we're kind of jet lagged, we're all over the place, and we went to a really rich meal. When I say rich, like rich food, pecking duck. And Lauren, of course, tapped out of the meal, but wherever I go, I have a meltdown,

and I feel rude for not eating the chef's food. I tap out. If I don't like the food, I won't eat it. I was like, God damn it, I got to eat this whole fucking pecking duck. Like, I got to eat the whole thing because Lauren's not eating it. Just like she did to me at the sushi restaurant, which I've talked about on previous shows. So I took it upon myself to eat this whole greasy pecking duck,

which looking back was pretty, Beat beat. Here's the thing. I will try anything from any culture and I'll embrace it, but I'm not going to eat like 10 plates full of something that I don't like. I just would rather have a croissant. So what I was doing was I was eating the pecking duck and washing it down with the Chinese rice liquor. I'm about to break up with you over this conversation. It's grossing me out. And do you remember, so we went to this club after with these people and we left the restaurant and I was so blacked out that there was a random Chinese guy in his car sitting there just on the side of the road. like, I don't know, like reading something or looking at his phone. And I got in the back seat of his car and said, take me to my hotel. He thought it was an Uber, but there's no Uber's in China.

Well, this was just a random guy in his car. Like, he wasn't a taxi driver. He wasn't an Uber driver. Yes, I remember. And so there was the language barrier, and he was having a meltdown because all of a sudden there's this blacked out American getting in the back of his car. And he's in the front screen at me in Chinese. Lauren's looking at me with a look of, like, shame and disgust.

Like, pull it together, bro. So anyways, we got back to the hood. hotel and I was so sick from the duck and from the Chinese liquor that I had to vomit, which is pretty gross, Lauren hates when I throw up. Oh, come on. No, I can't even deal. But they only had these tiny little trash cans where you throw the trash into the side of it. I mean, I don't know why you have to get the scrap.

So I had to like get down on my knees and turn my head to the side and like throw up sideways. Yeah, you know what I did, you guys? It was on the third floor and I looked at him and I was like, I'm out of here, got on the the elevator, went up to the room by myself and just left him throwing up in a trash can on the third floor. I couldn't deal with that. So anyways, I hope none of these potential Chinese partners that we met with today heard that story, but I just

felt like I had to pepper that in because I wanted to talk about that experience. I don't understand why you have to take me back to that. So we said we're probably not going to be going back to Beijing anytime soon, but it looks like maybe now we might. You are not allowed to have pecking duck and rice vodka. Growing a global brand. Okay, speaking of brands, the last question of the show, how do you rec- Breonna asks, how do you recommend reaching out to brands?

I've literally been blank staring at my computer screen for hours trying to start an email also. Do you recommend getting a media kit? How many pages should I list prices there? Lauren. Okay, this is very important because when you reach out to brands, you don't want to seem desperate and you also want to make sure that you're providing a benefit to them if they're going to provide a benefit to you. So you always want to make sure that you're approaching them in the right way.

And I'll get back to that in one second. As far as the press kit, I think if you are an influencer, you absolutely need a press kit. One page. Well, here's the thing. I got mad that you sent the Chinese people my one-page press kit. I didn't send that to them. Oh, you didn't? No.

Oh. I don't know how they found that. Yeah, I don't either. Okay, anyways, that's a different story, you guys. So I have two press kits. I have one that's super extensive. It's like, I would say it's like five pages, and it basically just lays out what the skinny confidential is about,

the brands I've worked with, my conversion rate, my SEO rate, is it SEO rate or SEO score? I don't know. And whatever, I'm not an SEO expert. What else does it list? It shares about my company BlogDoo, which is a blog design company. And then it talks about like my YouTube channel and my stats.

So that's my extensive press kit that I wished Michael had shown to the Wii Who guys. Is that how you say it? No. What did you say it? Wemo. Wemo. Sorry, we're in Wii Who. Yeah.

So then I also have a press kit that's one page. And that's the one I normally use because people want to get to the point. It's just all my stats on all my different channels and my conversion rate and just tells what the skinny confidential is about. And it has four pictures. It's super simple. And if you guys want to kind of know more about this, I'm happy to do a blog post on it. So when I first started out and I would approach brands, I would do it very delicately,

and I would make sure that I was telling them what I could do for them instead of asking them what they could do for me. That's like my biggest advice. You never want to approach anyone, in my opinion, in this industry, with asking them what they can do for you. It's always showing them what you can do for them. No, I mean, coming from the brand, if you're coming from the brand side, you have to think, okay, I have a budget to advertise. I need to get the most bang for my buck. I'm going to work with this person. Are they going to get me a return on my investment?

So I would say the number one thing is don't get greedy. You know, if you're just starting out, understand, like, you need to be able to perform and convert for these people. They're paying you. I remember. Make sure you can deliver. The first time I ever worked with a brand, it was, what are those things you put in your shoes to support your arch?

Not lifts. I know what you're talking about. I can't think of it right now. But everyone knows what you're talking about. It's something you put in your shoes to support your arch. And I actually use these all the time. I used to have planar fasciitis, which was because my arch wasn't supported, so I used them all the time. So that was something that really made sense for me in the skinny confidential to talk about.

And that was my first time I ever worked with anyone, and it's cool to look back on. As far as now, I get approached a lot to work with different brands, but I'm very, very specific. I probably turn down, like, I would say 20 different brands a day because it's not the right fit. Yeah, but to answer the question of how to reach out to brands, I would put together a simple form email and I would reach out to like maybe four or five different brands that you're considering working with that you think would be a very good fit where you think you could add a voice to. Don't make it a copy and paste email because brands, no. Not a copy and paste, but like a form email where you can like. No, make sure it's doctored towards the brand you want to work with. Like make sure it's very personal.

Yeah, don't say like to whom it can make concern. To whom it may concern. And I would not list the prices. I would at least start speaking with them and seeing if they have any interest in there and go from there. If there's a budget. Yeah, if there's a budget. And also you don't want a pigeonhole yourself.

Maybe they have a bigger budget. But don't, can I just say this to everyone? Don't work with a brand if it doesn't make sense for your brand. Don't go there. Don't even do it. If you have that feeling in your stomach that it's, and you don't have like a good feeling about it and it isn't something you would actually do or use,

try to avoid it. I've made the mistake, probably three times in my blogging career, and I will never do it again. If it's not something that's completely organic and authentic to my voice and my brand and my readership, then I'll turn it down. And when I say this, I'm being serious. And Michael, you know this. I don't care how much money it is.

If it doesn't fit on the platform, then it doesn't fit on the platform. Well, like I both said, don't shoot yourself for a short-term game when you're pursuing a long-term goal. Yeah. So reach out to brands, make sure the letter is doctored towards the brand. Should we do an example of one? Like, I don't know. Should we say, let's say we're reaching out to, what's the brand? Adidas.

Okay. So you want to find the contact for their PR. That's where I would start with that. Find the name of the PR if you can. Like, if you can actually find the name of the girl or guy, say her name is Judy. You can say, like, hello, Judy. Like, I just want to let you know how much I love Adidas. I think this would do really well on my platform.

all my stats are attached. You can find my blog here. Here's the links to my social media. Thank you so much for the time for reading this email. I would love to touch base. Maybe we can hop on a call to discuss a potential partnership and then have like a beautiful signature with your name and your links. But don't make it too long.

I'm telling you you guys. The worst thing you can do is make this long, drawn out email about like everything you've ever done since high school. You got to make it short. You got to get to the point. you've got to provide links. No one has time anymore. And just make sure you're attaching your one sheet.

Yeah, one sheet. Do your research on who you're supposed to be speaking with. Keep it short and to the point and most importantly, show how you are going to bring value to this brand. Don't go in there asking for something up front right away. Start the conversation and demonstrate how you're going to add value. Yes. And for the four-page press kit, the reason I have that is for brands that I'm working to deal with

and they just want to see more. So that's why I have that. So that's like pretty much, that's all the questions today. We have our date night now. I'm excited. What are you wearing? I feel like you already have a planned out.

I think I'm aware maybe like a blue blazer. Is it a blazer type place or is it a? You know where I'm taking you. Tell him. Are we going to go to Craigs? Yeah. We love this restaurant. Well, I went to Craig.

She always does this. She finds one place and then we have to go back every single. Yeah, I'm a routine. I like my routine. I'm a little worried because I just had a good workout and I'm going to go and be completely gluttonous. Why, you just had steak and potatoes last time. I ate your potato.

All right, guys. We'll be back next week. Make sure to subscribe to us on iTunes. Check us out on the podcast One app. You can listen if you're Android, iPhone, whatever. Make sure to rate and review us, and we will see everybody next week. Thanks for listening, guys.