The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - #5: Blog to Book, Instagram's New Algorithm, Brand Name, and Content Production, #askhimandher Episode 5

Episode Date: April 5, 2016

On this episode Lauryn and Michael discuss Taking a blog to a book and what it takes to become an author. They also run down the new Instagram algorithm, How to come up with a blog or brand name, and how to create a content production cycle. To learn more about The Skinny Confidential visit the site HERE To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE

And we're back again. Back, back, back again. Now these girls... Lauren was trying to do an intro like five times earlier and she just couldn't do it. So I had to take over. I'm not going to introduction. So I took over the intro.

And I think I'll continue to do the intro because every time Lauren starts the intro, she gets like five minutes in. She goes, just stop. Just cut it. No, I don't do that. And so this is the real thing. We're not going to cut again.

I am not going to allow it. I have shit to do. We are running behind schedule. I actually have an office to run. Ugh. So. Please. We're always behind schedule.

My employees are probably just having a break. They're probably, you know, not even in there. They're taking a nap. We're back with the podcast. We've got Michael and Jordan here. And we have a lot of hot topics to discuss today. But before we do that,

really important to subscribe on iTunes to our podcast and if you want to ask questions that are featured with your username on the podcast,

make sure to hashtag Ask Him and Her on Twitter or Instagram. Yeah. I just want to, like, this is super casual, so, and I mean,

I don't really care if we screw up or what. I mean, I'm sitting here, I'm eating part of my breakfast. You love bananas. I need some potassium. My skin looks like an old weathered saddle that has been left in the rain for about five days. Yeah, your skin is like, you need major. At the ripe age of 29, I look like a 62-year-old man.

I look a little 30. So if anybody out there can help me with what I should be doing for skin. I can't. I give you skin tips every day. You're going to ask everyone else? Well, I like a second opinion. All right. So you guys can send in skin tips.

I'm going to finish this. Tell them avocado oil. Okay. So we've got a lot of hot questions today, so we won't talk for too much. But first, let's discuss how your birthday went. Did you have fun? He loves his birthday. Nope, not a big birthday guy, guys.

Not a big birthday guy. We just did a casual dinner at the house. We had chicken tacos and a banana cake, his favorite. You love banana cake. I love banana. I love banana cake. Jordan was wondering why I eat so many bananas and was wondering if I'm doing this for a reason. And I just don't understand how after 26 years of knowing me, you don't understand that I like bananas.

You've really missed the mark as my sister. I feel like you like bananas because the dogs like bananas too. You're just always eating them all the time, like aggressively. You just got your banana. You're like hustling around. I actually just went to my lawyer's office the other day and he happens to be Jordan's boyfriend and he had his secretary. She called me and said, Michael, Michael, what do you want? What do you want from the meeting? I was like, just give me a banana. Yeah, I know. They thought it was hilarious.

Well, that's, I really love bananas. They're nutritious and hilarious. I really love bananas. Christy's crying for you to pick her up and give her some bananas. They're nutritious and delicious. Okay, so before we get started, I wanted to show you guys something really interesting. And if you want to see this, go to our YouTube channel because we're recording all of our podcasts on YouTube so you guys can see the visual. And this is Michael's time cube. So this is really interesting. If you follow him on Snapchat, you probably already know his username because he says it 600 times. Michael Bostic. you probably already know his username because he says it 600 times michael bostick um anyways this time cube can be found on amazon and it seriously changed my life like i will take 15

minute showers in time myself well let's explain it so yeah explain it basically it's a cube and i've talked a lot about this it's like a tomato timer but it looks better cleaner that's five minute increments 10 minute 15 minute whatever whatever this company is that makes this we'll link it below um you can find on amazon but literally if you're if you are part of this company and you're watching this you need to sponsor me immediately because i've probably sold a thousand of these things no you haven't didn't you give some away in a giveaway too yeah i did it's my favorite it's my favorite thing ever it is our favorite thing ever so I've been using his time cube

and trying to adapt his message because I'm typically running late and I'm trying to learn to get better and it's really been working for me. Sometimes I use the tomato timer too. We will link it below

on our YouTube channel so make sure you check that out if you're listening on iTunes, YouTube. Okay, so moving right along. What is the first question since we have four questions today? We've got to get through this.

Okay. On a time schedule. He. On a time schedule. He's on a time schedule. He's using his time. Keep us on track there. We know we will. Ashley underscore sides asks. Oh, babe.

Go ahead. Ashley underscore sides asks, how do you take a blog to a book? Lauren, I feel like that's all you. That's all you, Lauren. How do you take a blog to a book? Okay, so the first that's all you. That's all you, Lauren. How do you take a blog to a book? Okay, so the first most important thing is laying the groundwork. Laying the groundwork means

that you set yourself up in a position where you're able to write a book. And how you do that is you find your voice through the internet. And there's obviously millions of bloggers out there, so the best advice I can give you is to completely be yourself and let your voice shine through the screen. Someone should read your blog and not see the logo and know it's your blog.

That's how strong your voice is. So once you develop your voice and start to – Pixie's growling. And she's developing her voice. And you start to, you know, write multiple, multiple blog posts. I would say like two years of blog posts every single day. What you're going to do is you're going to probably attract a publisher if your voice is strong enough and it's coming through the screen. So that's my first tip. Write every day, write for two years, write consistently and show your voice. If you're not approached by a publisher,

then approach them. I mean, approach 20. The worst they can say is no. Maybe one will say yes. For me, I wrote every day, like I said, for two years and a publisher approached me and I was really hesitant because I wanted to make sure I was ready to write a book that was in the grand scheme of my plan, but I wanted to make sure I was ready. I'm really glad that I was approached after the two-year mark because the book ended up coming out three years into blogging, so it was the perfect point. Writing a book takes a very long time and a lot of dedication and effort, so if you want your book to come out, you know, within the year, make sure you get started right away. So my first tip, I guess, would be to write,

write, write, write, write on the internet. Be consistent. Let your voice shine through, and then if after two years you feel like you have a lot of content, write, write, write, write on the internet, be consistent, let your voice shine through. And then if after two years, you feel like you have a lot of content, go approach publishers, write in, show your work, show your blog, and you kind of have like an online resume. How is the planning process of writing a book? Is that like you plan out the chapters? Is it like super planned or do you just start like writing? How does that work? With a publisher, they want to see an outline and a layout, and you can also present that to the publisher, kind of almost like a PowerPoint kind of thing, where you write down your chapters and what each chapter will be about

and a description. And from there, you sort of have the foundation of writing the book, and you can go in and, you know, I started with chapter 5 instead of chapter 1, and I actually wrote chapter 1 last because I wanted to sort of see the whole entire book and then go back and sort of loop everything in. And the publisher sort of directs you on kind of the direction. So you write the body, you write the beginning, you write the ending, and then you got the acknowledgments. They're really good about kind of steering you in the right direction.

So the publisher can be a really big help with that. Can I mention something about the business end of books? Sure, go for it. I think that it's very, very difficult to make, if you're doing this for a financial gain, I think that that's the wrong move to start. I think it's very, very difficult to make any money on books these days

unless you reach a level that, you know, you're like a James Patterson or somebody like that or if you have the ability to sell your own books. I mean, we were, we met with Gary Vee a couple of weeks back and a guy like that who has such a strong social media presence was able to sell what a hundred thousand books in the first week, something insane like that. So that's somebody that can actually monetize. But what I think you should think about if you have a blog and what Lauren's done is maybe use that book to add clout to your blog, which is your main

platform. Absolutely. So if you're going in, people don't realize, I mean, you can be, you're already a self-published author when you have a blog. I mean, that was not possible 25 years ago. Absolutely. So the great thing about writing a book now is you do get that published author. And for those of you who can't see me, I did the quotations on my fingers. You do get that published author clout. But I think in the beginning, you should be using that, like it's almost reverse. You should be using the book to give your blog clout and get people going to your blog a lot more. I mean, the days of becoming a multimillionaire off books are, it's very, very difficult. It's very difficult. I also think, let's take this bigger than bloggers.

I think if you're anyone, you can write a book. It adds clout to your brand. For instance, very very difficult it's very difficult i also think let's take this bigger than bloggers i think if you're anyone you can write a book it adds clout to your brand for instance if you're an e-news contributor why not write a book give us some diet secrets i think maria menounos i don't know how to say it did that and um it really really did well um if you're a fashion influencer like you know laurenrad, she's written like five books and they've done really well. If you are a public speaker, Tony Robbins, if you are a designer, you know, Tom Ford. Tom Ford didn't really do a book though. He did like a design book. He did like a coffee table book, whatever you want to do. So I think in this day

and age, a book just lends clout. Taylor's like unwrapping like a Reese's bar or something. That's really loud. I think a book just kind of lends more clout to your brand no matter what it is. So I think everyone should kind of look into writing a book. Why not? And my book's coming out next week. So just kidding. It's called How to Deal with Michael and Lauren.

It's called Behind the Scenes. All right, moving right along. It's called how to deal with Michael and Lauren. It's called behind the scenes. All right. Moving right along. What's the next question? Okay. Jamie, her username is at underscore free days. She asks Lauren, what are your tips for picking a blog name and how did you come up with the skinny confidential? Um, my tips for picking a blog name is to open the notes in your iPhone and just start writing down words. When you say the notes in your iPhone, you're talking about the notes app. The notes app in your iPhone. Write down words that speak to you.

So if your blog is going to be all about time cubes, start writing down words that have to do with time cubes. Start writing down words that are a huge contrast to time cubes. I love mixing words that shouldn't go together. You know, making kind of your own brand. Are time cubes going off? What does that mean? Just don't worry about it. So anyway, so pull up the notes app, write words that are contrasting, write words that are similar, write words that speak to you, words you love, random words, colors, whatever. And just keep it on that notes on your iPhone and keep looking at it and start playing with words and moving things around. I am not a fan of sometimes making up your own word.

I would rather use two words that contrast, but it's kind of just up to you. Yeah. And I think I'll say something about this. Before Google was Google, Google was just a weird word. Nobody knew. I mean, if I would have said. That's true. If I would have said Google, you know, 25 years ago, that's going to be the one of the that's going to be the number one search. And that's going to be a huge company.

It would be like, what the hell are you talking about? Google, a word or a name or a brand is what you make of it. I don't think I don't think it's so important to focus so much on the name. I think it's more important to focus on how you're going to present that name and how that name is going to be known. When you hear the skinny confidential, maybe people in their minds think, oh, this is going to be something about being skinny. Really, that's not what the blog's about at all. Actually, the word skinny is like where I envisioned it was get the skinny. Yeah, like get the info.

Get the info. Yeah. So once again, it's like what you made of it. And I also like a little bit of controversy. Controversy. Controversy. So I knew that the word skinny is kind of one of those words. And I feel it fits well with the brand

and how the brand speaks realness and taboo subjects. So it just works. Also make sure that whatever you're picking is also fitting with the brand too, right. Um, and don't copy anyone else. I've seen a lot of people try to do things that copy too, too much with other people's brands. As a reader of blogs and somebody who obviously works with a blogger, um, I would also be really careful about using your own name unless it works well. I mean, like, I think when people just call their blog their name, I've seen that before, it's a little strange because you don't get any idea of what it's about or what the content's

going to be. It's more just about, you get the impression that it's about them, like they're a celebrity. And I think bloggers are, yeah, yeah. So me and Jordan were talking a little bit about this earlier. I think you have to be careful to cross the line of narcissism and what makes sense. So there's certain people, let's take me for example. Nobody would, if I, I'm not a very known person, but if I have any kind of notoriety at all, or anybody has any kind of idea who I am, I started all my social channels as Michael Bosick because I never thought that I would

be putting myself out there in the, I never envisioned being on a podcast or being part of a blog or being featured on Snapchat or Instagram. It was more just a personal thing to interact with friends. But as Lauren's brand has developed, um, it's made sense for you to clearly, well, clearly I've had some, a little bit of attention just off of her wave and people, people know me as Michael Bostic because that was what all my social channels were. So if all of a sudden I changed myself to the banana eating time cube surfer, people would be like, who the fuck is that? You could have a blog called Panicky Susan.

No, I think, but so my point is to circle it back around. Your name developed first. To circle it back around, if you have, if your name has, and I'm not saying mine has been developed and I'm not taking a egotistical, narcissistic standpoint, but if what I'm known for now is Michael Bostic and not the Banana Surfing Time King, then it would make a lot more sense for me to keep my social channels or if I ever had a blog or anything as Michael Bostic or Bostic just because I already have a small demographic that identifies me as Michael Bostic. Absolutely. Now, if somebody came out of the woods and nobody had ever heard of them before

and they came out and called themselves Johnny Appleseed, excuse me, old JA as an example. It's off-putting. It's kind of like, is this guy being narcissistic? No, you know what I don't like either? I don't like when someone says, say her name's Katie, like say her blog's called Katie's Tips. Katie's Tits?

No, Tips. Oh, Tips. You wouldn't say Tips. Katie's Tips. Oh, Tips. Yeah. Yeah, no. Or Linda's Loves.

So the bottom line is. Or Heather's Favorites. Yeah. The bottom line is you need to make a name that makes sense, that speaks to your brand, that's going to have the most impact, that people are going to identify with the most, that speaks true to you. And the key there is speaks true to you and makes sense to the demographic. I mean, I can't harp on this enough.

It needs to be authentic. It needs to speak to you. It needs to make sense, period. But at the same time, don't put so much time into calling yourself the purple rose girl. I mean, because the name is ultimately going to be what you make of it. Absolutely. Great. Love that answer. Okay. Hopefully we answered that for you. Okay. Next, this is a question that came in on Michael's Snapchat from Tila. Lots of A's there. She's asking, what do you think about the new Instagram post policy and how do influencers use it to their advantage? Well, let's start off with you

explaining the whole thing because I need a full explanation. I'm not an expert at all yet. It just came out today or recently, right? Yeah, like last week. Okay, so I'm not an expert, but what I see is that you can now turn on on your phone notifications to be notified when a certain person on your Instagram feed posts. So, for example, if I follow Lauren, I can actually go into my notifications, click the three little dots next to her picture,

and say, turn notifications on. Which you all should do right now. Now, a lot of people are freaked out about this because what this is going to do, if this was, let's just use Lauren, for example, and I'm following her. If I turned her notifications on and I turned Jordan's notifications on and Taylor's notifications on, those three people are going to populate on the top of my feed the most. So a lot of people are freaking out and saying, oh, this new algorithm sucks. People aren't going to see us. But you have to reverse engineer and think about it this way. If people aren't turning you on or people are unfollowing you and don't want to see it, maybe you need to question the content you're delivering. So when people are saying, how can influencers make this work to their advantage?

You need to be providing, like we always say, valuable content to the consumer. If you're just there to spam somebody, you're going to fail. I actually think that this is going to be very, very good for people that actually provide value to the consumer. If I see you five times in a bathing suit in a row, I consider that spam. That's annoying. I don't care how good you look. Or 18 selfies in a row, or look 18 selfies in a row or here's a picture of me here's a picture of me here's a picture of me here's a picture of me I can only see you know let's mix it up let's get some different shots what are you eating what are you doing who are you with what charity are you working with let's give give a lifestyle I can't see 40 pictures of someone in a row well this is going to be very very good for people that provide

value and are not spamming people and very very very bad for people who are spamming people. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. I think it's going to be a big, almost like a, I don't know, what do you call it? Like a cleanse. A cleanse, a detox. A detox. People are going to be pushed aside while others are going to rise. And the ones that rise, this algorithm is going to be very, very good. And the ones that don't, it's going to be very, very bad. So here's the thing, though, and this is what I'm wondering. I feel like Instagram is really based off of, you know, people, average people, not just influencers. So what about them who are really just posting pictures for their friends? I mean, are they going to still – I mean, at the end of the day, if you don't have the average person, the non-influencer using Instagram, you don't have a social media platform.

So if they're not still seeing it as a useful platform for just their average daily life, do you think Instagram's going to still be popular? I think that I phrased that question, like, when I first answered wrong, I made it, like, not wrong, but I geared it towards influence because she's an influencer asking the question. But I think my main concern and what I think is going to be better is for the average person who's just trying to use this for a good experience. They're no longer going to have to see all these people spamming them.

They're going to see their friends. You're going to turn on the notifications. I'm going to turn on my notifications for my family. Are you going to turn it on for me? Yes. So I'm going to see what my family's doing. I'm going to see what Lauren's doing. And to that, I'm going to see the people or the influencers that I want

to follow. So I think it's going to make the user experience better for the average person who's just using Instagram for a good experience. You know what I mean? Can I be honest here? Yeah. I don't care. Like I don't care that Instagram's doing this. Everyone's freaking out. Everyone's doing all these posts about turn on my notification. You don't want to miss me. Here's the thing. If someone wants to turn on your notification, they're going to turn it on. They don't need the spammy posts that everyone's doing. Number two, Instagram, it's on, I mean, it's not on its way out, but it's, it's turned into Facebook a little bit. I'm more focused right now on other platforms. Instagram's great, but it's just a tool.

It's, it's, it's something, it's like a tool in your toolbox. Okay. It's, it's a hammer. We've got tons of other tools in our toolbox. I think everyone needs to stop focusing so much energy towards Instagram and what Instagram is doing and own Instagram and start being savvy and smart and looking at the other apps and what you can do to manipulate the other apps in your favor. For instance, we've just heard about this app, which is not for me, but people are utilizing it and they're becoming famous stars, which is Musical.ly. So why don't you tell them what Musical.ly is and how they like someone could utilize that, that wants to stand out. It's a music app where you can lip sync songs or put out your own music.

And it's funny because it's got a lot of attention right now. If you go on your apps list and you see top list, Musical.ly is consistently for the last few weeks. Which you should be looking at if you're an influencer. If you're anybody. You should be looking at what's trending in the app store. Not just an influencer, anybody. Instagram's not the end-all be-all.

Instagram reminds me of the hand drill. And now you're using the power drill instead. Let me just say something. This industry is way, way too concerned with numbers. Overinflated numbers, underinflated numbers. Me and Taylor run an advertising agency. It is never about the numbers. It's about conversion. I don't care if you have a million followers or a thousand followers. I care about how you convert.

Meaning if I give somebody with a million followers something or I'm paying somebody to promote something for me and they get me two or three sales of the million followers, their conversion sucks, which means people are not consuming what they say. If I give somebody with a hundred followers something and 50 people buy something, they have an amazing conversion. And that's what I'm focused on. I don't care about numbers. And I think people in this space are way too focused on numbers. And that's because of Instagram. That is because of Instagram. It's set the tone. It doesn't matter. It matters on engagement and conversion. I have to be, again, really honest here and say that in a way I'm glad for this change.

I'm glad that it's going to weed out the fakes and the people that are bullshitting. And it's going to provide other platforms where it isn't about followers and likes. It's more about your personality and if you're engaging with your followers and your readers. Snapchat's so amazing because I feel like I'm texting you guys. You guys can send me a quick question. I can answer right back. Move on. In the end, it is about engagement and conversions and just connecting one-on-one,

and Instagram has become this curated, filtered thing. So I am not worried about the new Instagram update. I don't think you guys should be worried. I think you should focus on not just Instagram and not put your eggs all in that basket. All right, next question and last question. Aisha, her username is at justbusydreaming. She asks, Lauren and Michael, how do you develop a good blog schedule and social media schedule? Lauren needs to dive into this one.

Aisha, this is something that's a work in progress. It does not happen overnight. I picked up a great tip from my girlfriend, Gaby, of What's Gaby Cooking. She actually went on Etsy and bought four months of calendars. And she took the calendars, and they're huge calendars, and I'll leave the link below. Whiteboard calendars. They're whiteboard calendars. And she framed each calendar.

So she has January, February, March, and April framed in her office. What she does is she takes a Post-it note and puts what she's doing on each day. She's so organized. And I mean, I wish that I could be exactly like that right now. We're planning a month of content out because my schedule changes so much and we're traveling and it's hard to kind of, you know, fit everything in. But I do think it's a huge part of success to plan out your content and be prepared. Another way to do that is I open the notes in my iPhone. Again, that app, I use it all the time and I plan what Instagram posts I'm doing, what Twitter posts I'm

doing, Tumblr, Pinterest. It's a lot of work to plan your content, but it's so much better to have it all planned out so you know what you're doing each day. And another quick tip, and I'll let you answer this as well too, but I just want to get this one last tip in there, is know exactly what you're doing that day and have it make sense. So if you're posting on the blog about motivation, have that shine through on all your social channels. Do things about motivation on each social channel.

You don't want to be talking about plums when you're pushing motivation on your blog. Make sure it's all fluid throughout all platforms. And again, plan your content, at least plan it a month in advance and know what you're talking about and know what you're doing. Well, on that note, let me tell a little story. I don't know how familiar everybody is with Lauren's business model. I've been involved in the business for a long time, but it wasn't until when, like November, December, that I actually came on as a bigger presence in the brand. And when I first came on, I sat down with Lauren and I said, we had a post that was due at midnight for her blog. And I said, okay, where's the post? Like what's going on? And

Jordan and Lauren said, well, Lauren usually starts it at nine o'clock at night and we're talking 9pm. It's due three hours later. And then she submits it to Jordan at midnight and then it comes in. It's late. Okay. Pause for one second. Just so everyone knows I'm one of those people that gets creative when I procrastinate. So I get creative in the last hour. It's just how I work. I'm trying to be better. But if I have a five hour deadline and I've had two months to do it, I will go in at the 11th hour and start working on it. And that somehow gets my creative juices falling. Yes, but it also –

And he wants to kill me. Actually, my New Year's post went up the second. Yes. But it's been long-fashioned. So I came on and I said, look, guys, we're going to set up a system. And I'm a big fan of systems. Oh, he loves systems. I come from a more traditional business sense.

And I've had to meet production cycles with my business, Jetbed, for a long time. Meaning I've had to get stuff in the production cycle being built, shipped to a customer on time so that I can make their delivery dates. And I looked at this blog as no different than that. So when I came on, I said, look, we are going to literally schedule out the time to nail these posts. We're going to schedule due dates and we're going to schedule live dates. Which was extremely foreign to me. I was like, what do you mean? You want me to do a post on Monday that is going up on Friday? I didn't understand that. So the difficult thing about Lauren's blog is a lot of it's in real time. We'll go to New York and we get back on Sunday night. And guess what? Monday, we do a post on Mini Delights about how

the New York trip was. So a lot of it's really real-time blogging, which makes it difficult. But what doesn't make it difficult... And which also means I'm working seven days a week. ...is when we do a post that's supposed to go... We know that that post is coming Monday night. So schedules are cleared for Lauren to work on that post all of Monday. Because we have backlogged the time to work in our calendar to do it. So I think you need to get on what I call a production cycle of posts.

And it doesn't need to be certain. It doesn't need to be the exact. But you need to schedule the time to nail the post that you're trying to do and really take it seriously as if it's a production cycle. Just the same thing as if you're shipping this banana to a customer. You need to get the banana produced. You need to get it in your warehouse. And you need to get it out the door to get it to the customer on time.

It's the same thing with blog posts. And if you're not doing that and you do start to have a level of success, you're going to run into trouble. As a member of the team that's kind of flexible and has to kind of figure out and go along with them and what they're doing, having it scheduled has made my life easier because then I know, okay, this is the day Lauren's going to need my undivided attention from, you know, 7am to 10pm or whatever. Like I just know my exact schedule based off what's in the calendar. So I think that when you have, yeah, when you have everybody on the teams on the same page, yeah, all the employees can help and like kind of be in the support system when, when required. And just to wrap,, kind of bring this full circle right now,

our first question was about how you take a blog to a book. And a huge part of writing a book is scheduling out that time and making sure that you have time for each chapter or each section, whatever it is. Scheduling that time makes all the difference. And let's bring it full circle and say that you should use a time cube when you're scheduling the time. And let's also bring it full circle to things that i've talked about

for months now is that if you're going to run a blog or if you're going to be promoting content you really need to take it seriously and run it as if it's a business i mean you're not gonna you're not gonna pick up any serious traction coming in on the weekends and decide to do a post here post there you want to get the users engaged. And to do that, you really need to schedule things out and have a plan. Hit it hard or don't hit it at all. That's my saying. And on that note.

Jordan's going to be gone soon. So we're going to have to have a. Yeah, we're going to have a couple fill-ins. We're going to have some fill-ins next time. I hope you guys don't miss me too much. Yeah, we're going to have some fill-ins. Get ready. It's going to be a wild ride.

All right, guys. Thank you so much for listening and watching the Skinny Confidential Him and Her podcast. If you want to watch it, you can see it on YouTube. If you want to listen to it, you can see it on iTunes. Please subscribe, rate us, review, be nice. And we will see you next time. Bye.