The Breakfast Club - Black Tech Green Money: Nicky Saunders, Content Strategist at Deeper Than The Brand

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

The Black Effect Presents... Black Tech Green Money! Ep. 186 In this episode of Black Tech Green Money, AfroTech's Will Lucas chats with Nicky Saunders, Content Strategist at Deeper Than The Brand, to explore the powerful strategies behind turning social media followers into loyal customers. Nicky, best known for scaling motivational speaker Eric Thomas’s online community from 300K to 2M, shares her insights on how entrepreneurs and small business owners can grow their digital footprint with authenticity and purpose. Follow Will Lucas on Instagram at @willlucas Learn more at AfroTech.com https://instagram.com/afro.tech Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind. Listen to The Daily Show Ears Edition on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. Nimminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove,

The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. -♪ Flash slam, another one gone. Bash bam, another one gone. The cracker, the bat, and another one gone. A tip, but a cap, cause another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old girl in Alabama

who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it! And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was Claudette Coleman. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records.

Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers. So that's why we created The Big Take from Bloomberg podcasts to give you the context you need to make sense of it all. Every day in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters. You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine. A lot of this meme stock stuff is I think embarrassing to the SEC. Follow The Big Take podcast on the

iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen. People, my people, what's up? This is Quetzalove. Man, I cannot believe we're already wrapping up another season of Quetzalove Supreme. Man, we've got some amazing guests lined up to close out the season, but you know, I don't want any of you guys to miss all the incredible conversations we've had so far I mean we talked to a Marie Johnny Maher

John check Billy Porter and so many more look if you haven't heard these episodes yet Hey, now's your chance. You gotta check them out Listen to quest love supreme on the iHeart radioio app, apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Afro tech conference is back bringing together over 20,000 tech enthusiasts, founders, investors, and more for another unforgettable year. For years, Afro tech has been the go-to event for black innovators in tech with the brightest mind share the latest developments and insights. This year we're bringing the experience to Houston, Texas from November 13th through

the 16th. Join us to learn from the innovators and leaders who are shaping the future of tech. From insightful panels to curated meetups and expansive recruiting, you'll connect with industry trailblazers. In addition to focusing on the latest in AI and data, this year's programming explores the intersections of tech with health, environment, and creative design. Don't miss your chance to be part of it. Secure your spot at Afro Tech Conference 2024 today.

Visit AfroTechConference.com to buy your ticket now. I'm Malukis and this is Black Tech Green Money. Nikki Saunders is a powerhouse in the world of content strategy and personal branding. She's the content strategist and founder of Deeper Than The Brand where she helps entrepreneurs, speakers, and creatives grow their digital footprint authentically. She's best known for her work with motivational speaker Eric Thomas, better known as ET, where she helps scale his online community exponentially. She's passionate about helping others

turn their social media presence into a vehicle for success using the power of storytelling, AI, and impactful strategy. So what goes wrong when I believe I have a post that's fire and I post it and it goes flat and nothing happens? Nobody likes it. Like what happens? Nikki, help me out. I mean, it could be a few things.

Like that's such a broad question. Like it could be the timing, it could be anything from you didn't have the right hook, it could be the algorithm. There's a lot of things. Like I always look at when I post and it goes flat I look at me first. Yeah, right. I think it's easier to control What I post and what I put out and what I create instead of going the algorithm is

What it does that was like because I can't I I feel like that's a cop-out but it does. So I was like, because I can't, I feel like that's a cop out. When other people numbers are clearly are doing okay. I'm just feeling a certain kind of way because no one's listening to me at this moment. But then I have like, I look at it from a standpoint of, all right, visually, how's it look?

You know, what was the first three seconds? Did I keep their attention? Because depending on the platforms, if you get them to listen through the whole way through, like that could be a thing. So it's just, it's a lot of things. It's a lot of things. Are our pictures on Instagram that?

No, no. That's just an idea. It's just, you feel me? Like you gotta put an extra love in it. So you may have to put like some music. You feel me? You may have to make it into a carousel. So you may have to say extra stories.

You may have to be a little bit more intentional with the captions and make it a little bit longer. What happens is what the days of I post a picture and I say one sentence, now that's dead. That's just, stop it. That doesn't even work. But the more that they add features, we have to pay attention to it.

So they're allowing you to add text to it. They're allowing you to add extra pictures on top of your pictures. So you look at, let's say the different features that are inside of Instagram and you use them, it probably better your reach for your post. And so what I learned, and this is a year ago or more, what Instagram does is they count swipes

through your photo gallery as engagement. And so what I wonder, because I actually enjoy these particular types of posts where there's a gallery and like none of the photos match. Like they just, you know, maybe one is a quote, the another one is me eating, the next one is, you know, something random. I actually enjoy those.

So tell like, what is that about? Why are people doing that? I enjoy it, but where'd it come from? What happened there? Why are people doing that? I enjoy it, but where'd it come from? What happened there? So sometimes they follow a theme, right? Sometimes they could be super just randomness, but it really gives you a sense of personality

of the person who's posting it, or the brand who's posting it, right? And so that's not necessarily normal in the way that we normally post that. Now it's starting to be attractive. So when we're seeing, okay, I have a picture of me at the park, but then I have a funny meme on the next one. And then I have a deep quote.

It's like, I'm'm fully truly understanding who you are as a person rather than the 30 seconds, 60 second videos, 90 second videos that can be kind of like staged and scripted. So sometimes we don't necessarily get your full personality unless it's those types of posts or even lives. That's why lives still kind of have a little bit of like energy to it because we get to know who you are because you can't really lie on a live. It's just impossible. Truly it's possible. So I'm going to ask a question. I'm going to go the long way around to ask this question because I think this is

important context. So we talk a lot about how educational institutions don't teach financial literacy and a lot of them do now. They're increasingly teaching financial literacy. And I say that to say this, when we talk about entrepreneurs and people who are trying to build businesses don't post the struggle, but they post the highlights.

So you only see the highlight reel. And businesses don't post the struggle, but they post the highlights. So you only see the highlight reel. And, but when you do post the struggle, or we find it difficult to post the struggle, I'll say that. So how do we solve for that? So when we talk about the academic and they trying to fix that, how do we fix, you know, the entrepreneur who's trying to show you that he's winning or she's winning

and they're finding success and therefore follow me. I'm on a road somewhere, but that struggle, like I don't want to sound like I'm on here doing the Tyrese cry. You know what I mean? All right. But the Tyrese cry worked good or bad. It worked. You feel me? So, but, but I say that because I think now in the season that we're in, the day in the life is starting to get more play than I fully got it together, right?

And those people who are actually taking advantage of that is like Gen Z and Gen A, like Alpha, like they're, they're really going into day one of trying to create a billion dollar brand, right? And they show everything about it, good or bad. Those people who can't do that, it's a self issue. It has nothing to do with the algorithms, the platforms, does the content work or not?

Because society, culture is over the highlight rules. algorithms the platforms does the content work or not because Society culture is is over the highlight rules. We want the actual Things that work or that doesn't work or I want to feel like I'm not alone anymore right and so Those people who are showing hey This is how I do this. I don't know if it's right. I don't know if it's like, but I'm going to do it anyways. It builds community.

And so those brands are starting to get more and more traction because it's community-centered. It's for the people. Whereas, yes, the ones that only show the highlights are great, cool. You could look at it only show the highlights are great. Cool. You could look at it more like as these are goals. I want to get there, but I feel disconnected because you're already there and I'm not. So I could look at you kind of like I look at it more of like we do the vision boards. So I could post your brand, your content on my vision board,

but I don't like, I don't truly feel connected until I am there where people who are posting about, okay, I made $10 today. Okay, I made $3,000 today. Okay, it went back to like four. Like those are starting to get a little bit more traction. It's still not of the masses just yet, but you start, if you pay attention,

it's definitely more popular on TikTok at this moment, but it's starting to make waves on YouTube, on Instagram, on Facebook as well, because people are just starting to like, are just over the highlight reel. Yeah, I like that. So I asked Madi what are the same question and I'm gonna ask it to you too.

Like, you know, I live in Toledo, Ohio. I live in a place, it's not like LA, in New York or Chicago, where there's always like, beautiful stuff to pose and my life is amazing. I'm walking in this place and I'm walking in that place and got the little furry dog and life is wonderful and beautiful. TikTok beautiful. But like and most of the people who listen to this podcast are not in LA, New York, Chicago, etc. So how do you, how do you develop that day in the life content

when your life doesn't feel like that kind of exciting. You just document what you do. So meaning I'm an introvert. So nine out of 10 times I'm in this area. I'm in front of computer screens and that's it. The crazy thing is, I think my life is boring, but other people don't. Right? Your life sounds like my life. I'm sitting right here eight hours a day. In front of- The majority of the time.

Yeah, yeah. But you're doing things that people wish they could. Like, you feel what I'm saying? So creating a podcast, creating any type of content, people are like, yo, show me how, right? Or how do I create it? How do I have interviews like you? How do I create it how do I have interviews like you how do I ask how do you prepare how like we take for granted what we do every single day

because we do it every day and it's super easy but if we was to start documenting it and showing that simple simple format do it on stories, see how it does, right? Because we as humans need to build momentum. I need to know this works before I really put all my energy to it, right? And so put it in stories, see like day in the life, okay, boom, I'm walking my dog, okay? Maybe that doesn't get that much views, but okay, I'm about to bullet journal and write out all my tasks

and how I'm feeling and they're like, oh, you have a routine? I'm like, yeah. Okay, like, okay, I went to the sauna and cold plunge. You do that? I was like, yo, I talk about content and AI all the time. Y'all concerned about when I go to the sauna and cold plunge, that's crazy. So it's interesting to see that what we think

is not important, like it really is important to people because there's a sense of your expertise and who you are. And so you can show one only and then people feel disconnected. So if you show both, yo, I'm on the journey of making my company over six figures, right? But in the meantime, I gotta call my mom, right? Make sure she's good.

I gotta go and Instacart messed up. So I got to go to the joint over there and make yourself normal. This is where storytelling comes in. And storytelling is the key part of any brand. If we pay attention to anything right now, the ones that are killing it know how to tell stories. This is why Nike has been what they have because they know how to tell

stories. They're not selling shoes. They sell stories. Apple sells stories. And so we look at the best and be like, okay, how do I turn a problem into a story of relatable story and so my boring life is going to be turning into a story that can relate to somebody who lives in Oklahoma right chilling in the crib who may only have a one bedroom at the time but can see like yo it's not about the space. It's about the story that you tell. So you caught a break working with Eric Thomas, legendary ET, when you started working with him,

what were those numbers like? 300K at the time. That's Instagram, YouTube, what was that? Yeah, Instagram, Facebook was about 200 and something. YouTube, I don't know where near a million at the time, but yeah, those were what I was working with. And when you, did you stop working or where do we go? How did Nikki grow this? We're still working with. And when you, you don't, did you stop working or when, where do we go? How did Nikki grow this?

We're still working with E. I love E. I'm not going nowhere. I'm one of those loyal people. Like I have my own stuff, but he's family. I'm always going to make sure that he's good. And where are we at now? That's why we're still rocking.

Where are we at now in numbers? Over 2 million, 2.2 on Instagram, about to hit 1.5 on YouTube and we at 1.9 and Facebook be acting crazy. We're literally at 2 million with Facebook but like 1.9 mil right now. Yeah, this is what's so interesting to me because, you know, he obviously he's dynamic, obviously. Yeah, but there's a lot of dynamic people like what happened? How did that happen to triple quadruple these numbers? John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily Show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture.

You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to The Daily Show, Ears Edition on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So y'all, this is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast.

Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm gonna toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimini, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Nimini here.

I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The cracker, the bat, and another one gone. The tipper, the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different,

inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And if you get with me, did you know, did you know,

I wouldn't give up my seat? Nine months before Rosa, he was Claudette Goldman. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome. My name is Paola Pedroza, a medium and the host of the Ghost Therapy Podcast, where it's not just about connecting with deceased loved ones. It's about learning through them and their new perspective. Join me on the Ghost Therapy Podcast.

Whoa, my lights in my living room just flickered. I'm a little nervous. I'm excited. I'm excited nervous. You know, I'm a very spiritual person, so I'm like, I'm ready and open. That was amazing. I feel so grateful right now. I got to speak to my great-grandmother, Abuela, and she gave me a lot of really good advice that I'm going to have to really think about.

Wow. Okay. That's crazy. Yes, that is accurate. Listen to the Ghost Therapy Podcast as part of the MyCultura Podcast Network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever someone crossing the street. Sorry. I didn't see him there If you feel different you drive different don't drive high It's dangerous and illegal everywhere a message from NHTSA and the ad council

so I Concentrated more on what people wanted than necessarily what the algorithm wanted or even what he wanted. So if people are looking for bars from him, I'm going, I'm going to do that. The easiest way that we made from like where he was to the first million was I figured out the best quotes, the best bars that everybody was loving. And I posted those things. So any time that he had a speech, any time he had an event, I would post exactly what the audience want, read the comments and go, OK, somebody's feeling this way.

Let's find a message based off how they're feeling. Right. And really went through the feedback based off the people, what the people wanted, because if you cater to what your audience wants, they're going to share it. I'm not, I'm not here to fight that. I'm not going to be like, no, we're only going to be posting about whatever we're selling, whatever we're doing. No, these platforms are for brand awareness.

So I'm going to always do different clips based off what people said. If there is a sports event that just happened, then you're going to see some images of that with E's voice on it that makes it more relevant. So figuring out the trends, whether there's a sports event, whether there's something political, whatever people are talking about that can be related to what he's saying, put it together. So between that and trends, it grows. But I concentrated

more on the content, the body of that instead of just the tips and tricks of the platforms. So were you anti or for repurposing the same content across different platforms or does your Instagram content need to be developed for Instagram? In the beginning, it was a little bit separate, right? Because if we think about maybe just a couple of years ago, there was different languages. But because of the rise of short form videos, it's almost the same, right? Because you got Reels on Instagram and Facebook.

You got TikToks, you got YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts just made an announcement saying that they could go up to three minute videos starting somewhere in October, right? So it's going to be the same. It's about how can you tell the story, right? So in the beginning, yes, one was only taking long form videos.

The other one was only taking texts and pictures. The other one was only taking texts and pictures. The other one was only taking 30 second videos. So in the beginning, understanding the platforms, you have to do a different strategy. Now it's starting to be repurposing it in a strategic way. But even that, like, how do you address each audience of the platform? So for example, if I was saying the announcement

of the YouTube shorts, making it up to three minutes, I would do a green screen on TikTok saying, hey, YouTube shorts are about to be three minutes. You can take your TikToks that are over a minute and put it on YouTube shorts are about to be three minutes. You can take your TikToks that are over a minute and put it on YouTube shorts. If I was saying it on Instagram, A, your videos that you do on Instagram reels, you could put it on YouTube now.

I'm catering to each of the audiences. So we would change the captions. We would change the formats at certain points of whatever the energy was going to be on that platform. But for the most part, it was just like strategic repurposing. Like his whole content is repurposed content. There's weekly new stuff,

but majority of it that you see where, in any major brands, is all repurposed content. You know, timing matters so much in social media. And I wonder, like, so like when I got, you know, involved with Afro Tech, I went to my first Afro Tech conference back in 2017. And I was like the only person back then vlogging every day. I was walking around the whole conference like this,

vlogging all day long, editing that night in my hotel room, publishing that night, Friday, like who is this guy? And I did that every day at that conference. So that's how I got on the radar of a lot of the executives. And so my question is this, like how timing matters. Like now you go to Apple Tech, everybody's doing that. When I did it in 2017, it was like one of maybe two people.

And so if I wanna jump off the bridge on YouTube, so there was a day where people would just say, you know, I'm gonna do 30 days straight of YouTube content. I'm like, Shameless Maya did this some years ago. It might've even been a year, but I think she for sure did it every day for a month. And she blew up. Does that still work today?

So if I say, you know, I want to pop on YouTube, I'm gonna go hard, I'm gonna do 30 days, I'm in, and hopefully by the end of that 30 days, I'm up. I got my YouTube plaque coming, it's up. So I wouldn't say you probably get a YouTube plaque guarantee, right? But I will say it does work for a few reasons. One, most people who do that

weren't consistent on it anyways. So now you're building consistency. Any platform respects consistency. And once they start seeing you post more and more, they're like, hold on, let me push you out because you're here every single day now. Hello, I kind of like you now. Before I wasn't taking you serious,

but now I kind of like you. So let me post it too, as a creator, you get better, right? You, your day one to your day 25 is going to be completely different. So you're going to now start having data of what works and what doesn't. And you're going, hopefully, hopefully, you're going to change up some of your content

based off, okay, this got seven views. This one got 5,000 views. Hold on, what did I do? Let's do this over, right? So between the platform taking you serious and then you figuring out exactly what your your audience and the platform wants. On top of that, you're building a community because people love journeys. I they're either a trying to champion you be trying to see if you gonna finish or not, but they don't watch you They don't want you regardless. And so then you're like, you know, this is day

17 and I feel like quitting right but I'm opposed it is only probably gonna be two minute long vlog today But hey, we here People are gonna watch okay. You know, is he gonna make it to the 30? Oh, we're A18, we're 19. Oh, okay, cool. And then also, you're giving inspiration for other people to be like, oh, they did that. I could do this too, right?

And so the community, if anything, if you don't get your plaque, you get a community that the second that these 30 days finish You could probably drop some merch you could probably go paid community You could probably do an event and they're going to be like I'm invested like I want to be a part of whatever else you're doing so there's a lot of benefits of doing that if you are open to the Totality of doing things on it like a challenge-based file. Yeah. Yeah, I like that I was reading an interview you did some time ago

And you said that your goal was to help people feel comfortable telling their stories in a way that feels true to them Yeah, there's a lot of Vulnerability that comes with being truly authentic online. We talked about, you know, if I'm failing right now, there's this meme, you know, you talk about the day in the life of an entrepreneur, like I'm killing it, it's killing me, you know, I'm doing it, I'm done. And so, like there's real vulnerability with being authentic. How do people get over that and share themselves publicly and when I gotta go look at these people in the face now.

Yeah, it's setting boundaries, right? You don't have to, social media is not a reality TV show if you don't want it to be, right? You can do, like for me, you're probably not going to see much of my mom, much of my grandma. Doesn't mean I don't love them. It's just a boundary that I have. You may not always see 24 seven of my relationship is a boundary that I have, but you may hear in certain seasons that I, I suffered through depression, right? I'm not going to say that every single day, but there's certain seasons that I suffered through depression, right? I'm not gonna say that every single day,

but there's certain seasons, especially if I know it's kind of heavy in the creative burnout kind of season, that I may talk about that, right? There's certain, I kind of do a list of what I'm able to talk about and what is non-negotiable in this season. And then what I may say, depending on how I feel, how the audience needs it.

And it may stretch me, but I'm, I'm, I'll be open to it to talk about it. Right. And that changes with every single season. Like some people are like, my kids are like non-negotiable. I'm not putting out my kids at all. And then they become 15 years old and they became champion of something and they wanna just show them to just say,

hey, I love my baby, right? Like I don't really show him, but I love my baby, right? It's gonna change. But you as a creator, you as a business owner, turn creator too, gotta go, okay, yes, the main part is the brand awareness. The main part is the expertise, experiences, all that great stuff.

But I'm open to this. Now say it here and there, or I'll say it here and there, or I'll show it here and there, because you're going to receive energy of, man, I didn't know that about you. That's so amazing. Yo, I rock with you even more. Like, and sometimes it won't be in the comments.

It will be like when you meet a person, yo, I loved when you said this. You're like, you watched that? You didn't comment, you didn't like that, even though you followed. Like, what are you talking about? Nah, that really hit home to me, boom, boom, boom. Like, you don't know the impact that you truly have.

And as long as you feel comfortable showing it, talking about it, do it. But if you don't feel comfortable at all, do not stress yourself out because that's just not authentic to you. And so you're gonna be inconsistent with it. John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears

on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. The Daily Show podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports, and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of

the weekly headlines. Listen to The Daily Show, Ears Edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So y'all, this is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages.

One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm gonna toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimini, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all, Nimini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records.

Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The cracker, the bat, and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks

did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to historical records because in order to make history You have to make some noise Listen to historical records on the iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome. My name is Paola Pedroza, a medium and the host of the Ghost Therapy podcast, where it's not just about connecting with deceased loved ones. It's about learning through them and their new perspective. Join me on the Ghost Therapy podcast. Whoa, my lights in my living room just flickered. I'm a little nervous. I'm excited. I'm excited, nervous. You know, I'm a very spiritual person so I'm like, I'm ready and

open. That was amazing. I feel so grateful right now. I got to speak to my great-grandmother, Abuela, and she gave me a lot of really good advice that I'm going to have to my great-grandmother, Abuela, and she gave me a lot of really good advice that I'm going to have to really think about. Wow. Okay. That's crazy. Yes, that is accurate.

Listen to the Ghost Therapy Podcast as part of the MyCultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. When I smoke weed, I get lost in the music. I like to isolate each instrument. The rhythmic bass, the harmonies on the piano, the sticky melody. Hey, hey, hey, hey, careful babe, there's someone crossing the street. Sorry, I didn't see him there.

If you feel different, you drive different. Don't drive high. It's dangerous and illegal everywhere. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. What is some general and specific things when you go to an entrepreneur, you go to their page on TikTok, their Instagram, you like, you should stop doing that. Like that's why I ask, that's killing your success.

That's limiting your opportunities, stop doing that. What do we do? There's a few things and it's a preference, right? My thing is I'm never gonna tell you not to do something unless data shares that you shouldn't, right? Because I may not be your audience. Regardless if I'm auditing it, I'm looking at it as a friend, whatever.

I may not be your audience, but if your data shows that this is low numbers every single solitary time, fam, you may have to like, I know we don't wanna quit, and but this one you may have to like, put on the bench for a little bit. Like focus on what does numbers, right? And so it's just, it's a true sit down every single month.

A, I've put out between 30 to 10 pieces of content today, depending how consistent you are, right? This month I put out that amount. Which ones were the highest? Which one were the lowest? What are my average numbers, right? My lowest pieces of content, I really need to sit down and be like,

is it time to cut that out or do we go one more month? If we're in two months and we're not doing no numbers, chill out, let it go. Maybe try it in another season. I'm not saying let the idea go, but let's try it a different season or let's try to create it in a different way, in a different environment, in different kinds of content formats. Maybe that doesn't need to be a video.

Maybe that needs to be an article. Maybe that needs to be a long thread. Maybe that needs to be pictures. But it goes, data should run the way you move certain things when it comes to should I create this type of content or not. Does production quality matter anymore? No, no, no. We've seen too many videos go viral

that was on a bad Android. Sorry, Android. I love you. But it doesn't really matter. It goes, like, I have these three stages of content creation. There's consistency, quality and connection. Yeah.

Right. So consistency means the most and don't make people are just so bored of hearing of that you're bored, but you haven't done it. So I don't, I don't know what I'm going to continue to tell you. Right. So consistency is like, and that doesn't mean every single day, just the timeframe that you committed to. So if you're saying, yo, I'm gonna show up Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

and all you have is your phone, okay, do that, right? Because your audience is going to care more about the presence than the quality. Now the quality does matter when you're trying to be taken a little bit more serious. Right. So but I will still grab my phone and do a green screen because I connect with the people more. You don't want to be too too high, highly produced because then you lose a connection with the community. You seem too big time, right?

And you don't wanna just do lower quality all the time because then it's like, ah, you haven't really grown, right? If we look at Keith Lee, Keith Lee will forever do the phone videos, but he's taken a little bit serious because other content that he's collabed with has the highly produced Content right he's doing series. He's doing shows. He's doing commercials and all these different things So there's still a level of high production

But still let me keep to the core of how I grew my audience to over millions of followers Right. So Keith Lee is a perfect example of how Production isn't necessarily needed. It's great for balance, but it's not needed to really have the brand that you want. How do we turn people, let's say I've got 10, 20, 30,000 followers, they seem to be relatively engaged. How do we turn them into customers? They seem to be relatively engaged. How do we turn them into customers?

So do we know what they really, what their pain points are, right? So this is where we stop concentrating on what creates the views, and we have to concentrate on what creates the engagement and the conversions, right? So I'm going to be, if I have a product, clearly I have a solution to their problem.

So I'm going to start talking about their pain points in some way, shape or form. Pain points can go from motivation, education, entertainment, like it's not just an educational vibe. But if you are drowsy and I have an energy drink, right? I'm going to put up different scenarios for my night owls that is going to be like you're in front of the computer dying, but you still have to finish this one project.

You may pop out the energy drink and they're like, yo, what's that? I what flavors do you need at three o'clock in the morning? Oh, right. Now you're creating conversation in a real life scenario. So what are their pain points and how and what is the content that you're creating to show that one, this is them and two, what is the solution? When they see the solution, this is where they go, Hmm, I may need that.

But are you making them aware that they even have a problem? Right? So that example that I showed that's going to connect with night owls. And they're like, yo, I know I felt this way at one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning, and I still needed just this one little pep, and it could be an energy drink that only gives me that extra hour of boost. I don't need seven hours. I just need that one extra hour of boost.

Boom, I'm gonna go get that one, right? Yeah. So you show different scenarios of where your audiences can be. That's what turns into dollars. That's what showing other people user generated content is another great way, other people using your product, other people using your services.

Because we don't necessarily always wanna be the first ones to buy. We wanna always be like, oh, okay, all these people are doing this. Okay, hold on. This may, this may be the thing I need to do. Hold on. Let me show.

So user generated content showing, uh, just content of other people using it is going to be fire testimonials is fire, but finding it in a creative way. Stop. I don't know who needs to hear this. Stop posting flyers. Sucks. No one engages with it. They're horrible, right?

Leave that for emails. Emails are fine. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, not so much. Leave it alone. It's old. So yeah, those are different ways. You made a goal of hitting 10,000 subscribers on YouTube by the end of September. And you did it much earlier.

Congratulations. Thank you. What did you learn about that experience? Like because the YouTube algorithm seems to be the most challenging for many creators. What did you learn about hum Humbling. How that worked. How did you make it happen? Very humbling. So there was a few things that made it not as stressful. A combination of a weekly post with a weekly live.

Reason why is because one of them is going to get out more to the masses, which is your weekly post, right? As long as you're consistent once a week, you should be good, right? And then the live is going to talk more on the trending topics, but as well as build that community centered brand, right. As well as keep up your watch hours. Everybody knows, especially if you're going into the monetizing side of YouTube, you need those 4,000 watch hours to monetize. Now you do five minute videos,

20 minute videos once a week, it's gonna be a little bit slow, right? So the lives help bring awareness and watch hours to your videos. Plus it gives you more content to then chop up for shorts or another post on on YouTube, right? But I think the biggest, the biggest thing that I concentrated on on this 10k journey was the thumbnails and the titles. I promise you every youtuber understands the pain about that because if they don't click it means nothing. I don't care how great

your content is if they do not click and the only way they're gonna click is if your thumbnail catches attention and your title gives them that decision that this is for me. Right. So it was testing out different colors. It was testing out. Okay. I'm only going to have two things on my thumbnails and not 17 different things. I'm going to have sometimes words. Sometimes I'm not going to have words as and the biggest thing that helped with that was the A-B testing that YouTube enabled on everybody's account. Right? So when you have a video, always have two

to three thumbnails for that one video. Why? Because even though we may like a thumbnail, it's us liking it. We don't know what the mass is like. So YouTube allows you to test out up to three thumbnails and it goes every single day like, okay, does the people like this one? Does the people like this one? And it'll show you the percentage of what worked

and what doesn't. And it goes based off you know watch time right so even though I like this thumbnail this one got me 3,000 more views I'm going with that one I don't care if I like it or not I'm going with that one right I wish they did the same thing with titles but the once you understand that formula with with titles and thumbnails and really being intentional with testing those things out instead of just, okay, I'm going to make the best videos ever. Great.

That is important on the second stage, because now you have to improve on your average view duration and your retention. That's important. But that thumbnail and title to grab their attention when they open up YouTube, get in the door. That's super, super important. So I put a lot of concentration on my thumbnails and I'll tell. I'll tell. I use fiber. This is this is not I have my own graphic designer

who's testing it out. Some of the top YouTubers will be like, I test out 100 thumbnails every video. I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. I got a thumbnail person from Fiverr. He gives me about two thumbnails, a video. I'm great.

I'm absolutely fine. Now when the money comes back up, we may get an graphic designer who just does thumbnails. We may do that. Right now, let me get to about 20K. You know what I mean? And we're good. So you don't feel like it's canvas templates, that's not what it is.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, the more that I can get off of my hands just so I can think of ideas and create, I'm good with. I'm not a graphic designer. Right. But I do. I know my audience is solo peneurs and solo creators, so I will provide the the templates and everything like that, but I will strongly suggest, please set 10 to $20 aside.

And give that to Fiverr. If you are serious about growing on YouTube, please invest in that. Because your time is worth way more and the more that you, I went through a big creator burnout so anything that could help you from not getting creator burnout, I'm gonna tell you, hey, get rid of the thumb, you have no business

doing thumbnails, no business. You talk about teeth. There's nothing about you that is a graphic designer. Continue to talk about teeth. That's it. That's the fact. That's funny, that's funny. So yesterday you were online,

you're talking about the importance of learning and growing in public. And I love that. And say more about that, just in general. Talk more about that. So it goes back to what we were talking about earlier about documenting in public, right? I'm noticing that more and more people

are starting brands from scratch and being like, you know what, Bump It? more and more people are starting brands from scratch and being like, you know what, bump it, I'm going to do it in public. Now, some people have started with zero followers doing it, right? And some people have done it with a little bit of followers or a lot of followers.

A good example, like Mr. Grateful, love him. Hello, if you don't know, he hasn't been on Instagram for a little bit, but he was the guy that said, hey, ChatGPT came out, I'm going to try to get 30K followers only listening to ChatGPT. And he got way more followers and his posts went viral

because people are like, oh wait, you're really using this tool that we don't know is going to work or not and you're actually using it girl Let's do it, right? For me, I'm I'm realizing this new chat GPT voice thing one is hilarious to Is this way more detailed? Base instead of especially for those people who don't like to type a lot, like I can just have a conversation.

So the research that I'm doing, I'm like, okay, you know what, let's do this in public. Let's figure out this new voice feature in public. Let's figure out this new hat line, whatever we're trying to do in public, because one, it can work and it can be successful, or two, it could show what not to do. And that can still be successful, because people are still going to be impacted either

way. That's my whole thing. Like, building in public creates impact. Building in public also creates supporters, good or bad. So with those benefits, why wouldn't you create in public? Because having it all together is great, cool. I feel like it costs more money if you don't do it. I could grab my phone and be like, all right.

I don't really feel like doing anything with my business today. I mean, like, Chachi Bt told me some B.S. that I'm not doing, and somebody's like, yeah, I feel that way, too. I did that. I took and didn't tell me all yourself help routines that you did to get you better. But it creates that situation. So that's why I'm like, let's do this in public because the impact is crazy when you do.

Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro Tech on the Black Effect Podcast Network and Night Heart Media. It's produced by Morgan DeBone and me, but Lucas, with additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sarah Ergand, and Jaden McGee. Special thank you to Micah Davis and Love Beach. Learn more about my guests and other tech disruptors and innovators at AfroTech.com.

Video version of this episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in. Enjoying Black Tech Green Money? Share this with somebody. Go get your money. Peace tap in. Enjoy your black tech green money. Share this with somebody. Go get your money. Peace and love. John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive

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brings history to life through hip hop. Flash slam, another one gone. Bash bam, another one gone. The cracker to bat and another one gone. A tip but a cap, cause another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus

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I mean, we talked to A. Marie, Johnny Marr, Eve, Jonathan Schechter, Billy Porter, and so many more. Look, if you haven't heard these episodes yet, hey, now's your chance. You gotta check them out. so many more. Look, if you haven't heard these episodes yet, hey, now's your chance. You gotta check them out. Listen to Questlove Supreme on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.