Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPCreator: Turn Your Followers Into Superfans With Trust and Authenticity | Presented by OpusClip
Episode Date: December 11, 2024Are you struggling to stand out in a crowded digital world? Trust is the foundation of any strong brand, and authenticity is the glue that holds it all together. While Kat Norton blended dancing with ...Excel tutorials to create the viral brand Miss Excel, Rudy Mawer made red his signature, turning it into a bold and unforgettable identity. When you show up authentically, you can create a powerful bond with your audience. In episode two of the YAPCreator Series brought to you by OpusClip, Hala dives deep into why trust is essential to building a loyal community. She also shares actionable advice on how to nurture authenticity and trust as well as tips from previous YAP guests to help you turn your followers into fans. In this episode, Hala will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (05:16) The Three E’s of Building Real Relationships Online (06:42) Sean Cannell on Video as a Trust Accelerator (11:11) Authentic Engagement with Miss Excel (12:37) Embracing Imperfections for Deeper Connections (15:54) Polarity and Creating Viral Content (16:53) Rudy Mawer’s Bold Branding Strategy (21:14) GaryVee’s Guide to Niche Targeting (25:21) Jasmine Star on Growing a Loyal Community (28:39) Selling with Authenticity (32:26) Enhancing Authentic Content with OpusClip Try OpusClip for FREE: Visit https://www.opus.pro/clipanything Resources Mentioned: YAP E274 with Rory Vaden: https://youngandprofiting.com/rory-vaden-how-ive-helped-top-business-influencers-build-their-personal-brands-e274/  YAP E278 with Sean Cannell: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/sean-cannell-start-a-profitable-youtube-channel-in-2024-part-1-e278/ YAP E279 with Sean Cannell: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/sean-cannell-start-a-profitable-youtube-channel-in-2024-part-2-e279/ YAP E316 with Kat Norton: https://youngandprofiting.com/kat-norton-niche-to-riches-how-i-made-millions-teaching-excel-on-tiktok-e316/ YAP E318 with Rudy Mawer: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/rudy-mawer-the-ultimate-direct-response-playbook-for-scaling-multi-million-dollar-brands-e318/ YAP E291 with GaryVee: https://youngandprofiting.com/gary-vee-my-2024-blueprint-for-building-brand-and-sales-on-social-media-e291/ YAP E130 with Jasmine Star: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/130-stand-out-on-social-with-jasmine-star/ YAP E252 with Harley Finkelstein: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/harley-finkelstein-we-are-living-in-the-next-renaissance-how-the-next-wave-of-entrepreneurs-will-change-the-world-as-we-know-it-e252/ Top Tools and Products of the Month: https://youngandprofiting.com/deals/ More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yapYAP | Young and Profiting Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting  Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala  Learn more about YAP Media's Services - yapmedia.io/
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Hey, young and profitors, you're listening to episode two
Hey, young and profitors, you're listening to episode two of the YAP Creator series presented by Opus Clip.
In this series, we'll dive deep into the art and science of content creation, we'll
unpack the secrets of capturing attention and the psychology that fuels audience connection.
Today we're going to talk about two foundational pillars for success in content creation,
trust and authenticity.
Let me tell you, these two elements can make or break your connection with your audience.
Trust is the foundation of any strong brand, and authenticity is the glue that holds it
all together, the force that keeps people coming back for more.
In today's episode, we're diving deep into why trust is essential to building a loyal
community.
I'll also share insights on how to maintain authenticity
in everything you create, as well as some practical ways
that you can nurture both trust and authenticity over time.
You'll get a ton of actionable advice
and I'll even sprinkle in some great tips
from previous YAP guests to bring these concepts to life.
Building trust online is crucial,
especially when you don't interact with your audience face-to-face.
In the digital world, trust transforms casual followers
into loyal supporters and eventually customers.
But how do you establish that trust from behind a screen?
The first step is to get personal.
That means being open about meaningful details from your life.
Sharing who you are behind the polished brand makes you relatable, approachable, and real.
Rory Vaiden, a brand building expert, explained to me why this personal connection is so essential
for building trust and why it even made him change his mind about the people on social
media who like to post about their every meal. How do you best build trust online?
We would say, how do you best build trust offline?
Well, if you made a list, okay, so let's first start with the people, if you made a list
of the top 10 people you trust in your life, like would trust with your life or with your
kids, right?
Like, I've got two toddlers.
So like, if you go, who would you trust?
There's a good chance that the people on that list, like you would trust with your banking information or like that kind of stuff. There's a good chance you know those people intimately.
You know where they eat. You know where they live. You know about their families. You know
where they went to college. You know where they grew up. you know about their families, you know where they went to college,
you know where they grew up, you know about their siblings, you know maybe some of their fears,
you know some of their mistakes, like some of where they're... You know those people intimately.
And when I first got on social media, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so stupid. Why is everyone posting pictures of what they ate? And then I realized, oh, because we trust people
that we know intimate details about their life.
Now that doesn't mean you have to post pictures
of your kids, right?
There's a lot of reasons why not to
and a lot of fears why not to.
AJ and I happen to do it a lot AJ is my wife and she's also my co-founder
And the CEO of brand builders group by the way
So she was a we were business partners in our former company that we sold and then we started brand builders group
Just the two of us and she's the CEO and I'm the CMO so and we're married right so we got two kids
So we post we happen to share those things
occasionally so Right. So we got two kids. So we post we happen to share those things occasionally, so
We know we trust people that we know details about their life, right if I see someone walking down the alley
I've never seen him before. I don't know anything about the person
I don't care what the color of their skin is if it's if it's dark and it's an alley and I've never seen the person
Before I don't care if it's a man, a woman, or their
age.
My spidey senses go up.
I'm in an alley with a stranger and that's how it is.
Who's going to buy from a stranger?
Nobody.
So they got to know something about you.
Who else do we trust in real life?
Well, we tend to trust people who we learn from.
We trust pastors. We trust lawyers. we trust accountants, we trust doctors, we trust experts,
we trust people, we trust teachers, we trust mentors, we trust counselors, we trust people
who teach us things.
Who else do we trust in real life?
We tend to trust people who entertain us, right? They make us laugh, they make us inspired,
they're musical, right?
Or they're entertaining, like we see them on movies.
I mean, think about that.
We trust movie stars who we've never met,
but we see them a lot.
Who else do we trust in real life? We tend to trust people who encourage us in
our darkest moments. The people who were there when you had your heartbreak, when you didn't
get into that school or you didn't get that job or the relationship fell apart or you
lost money on that deal. The people who were there to encourage us in that moment, those
are the people we trust because it's like we've been through the fire, right?
I know you, you got my back.
So when you roll that forward to online, we have three simple strategies that we
teach, we call them the three E's for content marketing.
First of all, educate, encourage, and entertain.
Educate, encourage, and entertain. Educate, encourage, and entertain.
We typically say your feed should be more of what you do, and it should educate, encourage,
or entertain because strangers don't care about your cat.
The only people who care about your cat typically are going to be once they're intrigued by
you and they want to really vet you out, that's where they go, who are you really, right?
Rory talks about how trust comes from familiarity.
People trust those that they feel that they know, whether that's through personal stories,
inspiration, or education.
His three E's, framework, educate, encourage, and entertain, is a simple yet powerful way
to build genuine
relationships online. But how can we take this trust building to the next level? Well, some of
you are looking at it right now. And that's video. I learned about the trust building power of video
from Sean Cannell, an expert on video marketing and the founder of Think Media, which has over
3 million YouTube subscribers. Sean explained why video gives your audience
an instant sense of connection and trust,
something that other content types struggle to match.
We do business with people we know, like, and trust,
and video is the best trust accelerator.
If people read something you've written,
they can get to know you a little bit.
If they hear your voice on audio, that's great. They can get to know you better. But if they see you, they can get to know you a little bit. If they hear your voice on audio, that's great.
They can get to know you better.
But if they see you, they can get to know you best.
And so it's kind of like old school small town rules.
You know, we meet someone face to face for coffee.
You want to connect with your real estate agent in person,
look them in the eye, firm handshake.
What are you wearing?
You know, all those details speak something about you.
Well, in video, we are able to now communicate
those details and, you know, Google released a report
years ago called, I believe, the 311-4 rule,
which was, or the 711-4 rule, which was people need
to consume seven hours of your content over 11 different touch points
on four different platforms. And depending on your ticket price of your offer for there to be
trust for them to become a lead or even more so a customer. And so the power of video is you're
giving people a chance to get to know you pre-sale, pre-sales conversation,
and get to know your expertise,
get to know some of your values and your principles.
In fact, this would kind of be like a checklist
of the types of buckets of content that you'd wanna have.
It's why that, yes, you wanna establish your authority.
So you have videos that, oh,
this person knows what they're talking about.
You establish something that'll help them.
Wow, this person got me advanced results in advance.
So their content helped me solve a micro problem
compared to the big problem they solve.
Dang, I could see they're good for it.
They know what they're talking about
and they've already helped me for free.
But one of the missing pieces is they also maybe hear bits
and pieces of your story.
This whole idea of we do business with people
with shared beliefs and we do business with people
with similar values.
And sometimes we just go so logical and so practical,
like, okay, cool, this person can help me with Facebook ads,
this person can help me with my taxes.
But when you start weaving in bits and pieces of your story,
they start saying, oh wow, this person has family values.
Oh wow, this person is of a particular faith.
Wow, this person is even maybe kind of leans this way
or that way in their ideology.
These things, you don't have to put like politics
and religion in your content necessarily.
However, a lot of times those are polarized people to you
as well as away from you, but the people polarized to you
will be even better customers
and will resonate with you even deeper.
So over seven hours of content consumed,
11 different touch points could include a YouTube video,
seeing you on Instagram, connecting you within the DMs,
landing on your website and watching the explainer video.
And four platforms also speaks to the power
of being on LinkedIn, seeing a deeper dive training,
listening to you on an audio podcast.
When you start, this is the whole vision
of content marketing, is then all of this trust
has been built and this familiarity has been built.
And so for a lot of listeners, they might have a sales team
or somebody eventually jumps on a sales call.
You're not dealing with, if you will, cold traffic
or even just slightly warm traffic at that point.
You're actually maybe dealing with somebody who's like, listen, I already just slightly warm traffic at that point, you're
actually maybe dealing with somebody who's like, listen, I already like really know,
like, and trust you. I've seen this content. I'm just curious the details of your offer.
And so conversions increase, impact increases, sales increases, and you grow your brand wider
and wider in the process.
As Sean highlights, video gives your audience a chance to know you behind written or audio content.
With repeated exposure across platforms,
your audience builds familiarity and confidence
in your brand, setting the stage for deeper engagement.
We talked about trust, now let's move on to authenticity.
One of the best ways to appear authentic
is to embrace what makes you unique.
By incorporating your own interests and quirks, you're bringing more than just a polished image to your brand.
You're showing the real person behind it.
Kat Norton, aka Miss Excel, is a perfect example of how authenticity and unique interests can make content stand out. With over 1.1 million followers on Instagram and 2.3 million followers on TikTok, Kat has
mastered the art of capturing attention.
She told me how combining her distinctive passions for dancing and Microsoft Excel created
an unexpected level of engagement from her audience.
So I was really just learning by the seat of my pants.
Like I would read the comments people had and I'm like, okay, what do they like?
What do they not like?
But also for me, it really came down to authenticity.
So I love dancing.
I love helping people and I love Excel.
So I was like, what would happen if I put all of that inside of one video?
Right.
And so for me, it was just an authentic expression.
It was cool. It was something I had never seen anybody do before
in terms of the Excel space especially, but also in a lot of learning spaces.
Integrating dance, which is more native to the TikTok app,
but then layering in the educational piece.
And that polarity is what really helped the videos take off.
Because if I just posted Excel tip videos, people would have been like,
cool, like I don't use Excel and moved on.
But so many people were commenting because they were like,
what the heck is this girl doing?
She is dancing.
She's doing the two Z slide to the left and right function.
What is going on here?
And that's really what helped it go through the algorithm.
And I want to laser in on something you said, and we'll go deeper on it later.
But you talked about polarity.
So the fact that you combined two things that are really
uncommon together, dance and Excel, it gets people talking.
It gets people complaining, why are you
dancing talking about Excel?
Or some people will love it.
And it gets people talking, which really drives everything
up in the algorithm. Do you have anything else to say about polarity and how important it is for social media?
I think it's a combination of polarity, because obviously you want like a healthy polarity, right?
You don't just want to like say things to create polarity.
It needs to be something that's actually authentic to you.
So I think that's like the nuance when it comes to polarity, because a lot of people, too,
when it comes to polarity, it's important to make sure that your mental health
is in a great spot to be able to receive
what comes with polarity, right?
Because a lot of times when a video goes viral,
negative comments are the majority of the ones in there
because it's being shown to people, it's being shared,
and that's just the nature of the planet, right?
We live on a polarity planet, there's always positive and negative
forces. So it comes to, you know, making sure that your nervous system is able to hold the
energy of what is going to come through from creating the polarity in that content. So
for me, that was my biggest work. I was constantly working on myself because easily some people
get some negative comments and it'll take them out.
They'll be like, I don't want to post anymore.
People think this or you start having certain limiting beliefs
that then are adjusting the actions you'll take.
So instead of following your intuition,
you're following the actions that will please the most people or things like that.
So it's really important to keep coming back to yourself,
come back to that intuition and know that, you know,
the polarity is going to trigger some people and that's okay.
That was a big lesson for me as a former people pleaser.
You know, I had to let that go.
As Kat Norton points out here,
combining contrasting elements in a genuine way,
what she calls polarity,
can drive engagement and deepen connections.
It's a reminder that showing up authentically may involve quirks or unique passions,
even if they seem unconventional. When people see those real, unfiltered sides of you,
they're drawn into the person behind the brand, not just the content.
Okay, speaking of drawing audiences, audiences today crave authenticity. They want to connect with somebody who feels real and relatable, not just some polished
perfect version of you.
So don't shy away from sharing the ups and the downs.
True engagement comes when you share your failures, your setbacks, your lessons in progress.
These raw, unpolished moments build authenticity and foster deeper connections with your followers,
making them feel like they're part of your growth story.
At Yap and on My Personal Profiles,
we blend polished visuals with everyday moments. So for example,
one day I might put up a photo from a photo shoot that was professionally
shot. And the next day might be a selfie that I shot myself.
And tools like OpusClip make it incredibly easy to create these authentic moments
on video. So for example, you can set up a tripod in your house to take B-roll of your day
to day activities. So think cooking, cleaning, taking meetings,
working on the computer, whatever it is, you want to take this B-roll footage.
Then you can upload that into Opus Clip and it will pick out the most exciting,
actionable parts of the videos.
And you can ask it to turn it into a day in the life montage video.
It can create multiple video clips for you like this,
and then you have real behind the scenes glimpses
of your life that helps your audience feel
like they're truly getting to know you.
So we've talked about sharing personal details,
the power of video, and not being afraid
to be our unique and authentic selves,
even if that means leaning into being imperfect and unpolished. Another aspect of building trust with your audience and establishing
authenticity is consistency. And by consistency, I'm not really talking about posting frequently,
which is important, but I'm talking about aligning with your brand voice and visual identity across
every piece of content. This alignment helps you reinforce your brand message,
making it recognizable and trustworthy.
This starts with visual identity.
Elements like colors, fonts, and logos
can help you create a cohesive
and instantly recognizable look.
For example, by choosing a color palette
that aligns with your brand's values and personality,
you can differentiate yourself
and promote instant recognition with your followers.
And when it comes to branding, less is more.
If you stick with two to three colors max
and two fonts max,
the more clear and the more memorable you'll be.
And I don't think anybody I've ever interviewed
is more memorable than the marketing
and paid ads king, Rudy Moore.
See if you can tell why.
My whole office is red.
So we grew a 12,000 square foot office in Tampa, 50 staff.
Everyone had to wear red. They got sent home if they didn't come in uniform,
which was red. The, you know, whole office was red.
The Miami offices are red. The brands are red. The cars are red.
And people even ask me when I'm on stage, yes,
my underwear is red if you're wondering. So all in on the red, all in.
What has that done for your brands?
Like how do you feel like it's impacted your brand?
Yeah, I would love to say I came in with this exact plan.
That wasn't the case.
But I think one thing that made me successful is
I'm really good at looking and learning and adapting
and pivoting and then going all in.
So I started my personal brand when really when covid hit.
I really wanted to grow my personal brand in the business marketing world.
I'd already done it in the fitness space.
I had a million followers there.
I've sold out events around the world, had a Facebook group,
60,000 members, and I saw the power of it.
And so I was like, OK, well, now I'm moving into the business space.
I'm going to do the same here. So I brought someone in to run my agency, I went all in
with my personal brand, and we did $25 million in three years, just selling courses, programs,
coaching programs. So we grew super fast. And I'm saying that because I think half of
that is because I went all in on the personal brand and the social and the organic and stages and all of that sort of stuff. So it had a massive
impact. I don't think I would have grown it to that amount so quickly without the brand.
But during that time, we were just getting feedback. People were buying courses, programs.
I had this like red backdrop, nothing as extreme as I've got now. But it was kind of similar
to this if you're watching on video. And people loved it. They were buying 20k masterminds saying, I don't even know who this guy
is. I just see his red ads everywhere and his branding is on point and he clearly knows what
he's doing. Luckily, touchwood in this industry, I do feel I know what I'm doing. It's not just a
facade like half the industry we live in is. And then I was going to events when COVID lockdown ended and all the friends that I'd
known for five years were like, dude, I love your branding now, like how you did this whole red thing.
So it just got more and more and more and I'm a very extreme person, which is sometimes great and
sometimes terrible. So I just went all in, I just all my cars are red, I made all the offices red,
I made all the staff wear red, and I played into it,
and now it's very recognizable and I'm well known for it. Yeah, I mean, I think the key thing is
that you're memorable, right? There's so many other influencers out there, and you do have the
knowledge to back it up and the credentials to back it up, but the red just makes it memorable
and makes you stand out, whereas other people might have to be seen 10 times
to be remembered.
Maybe just once is all you need to be remembered.
Rudy's story perfectly highlights the power of bold, consistent branding and making a
lasting impression.
His commitment to his signature red theme ensures his brand is instantly recognizable
and memorable, cutting through the noise in a
crowded space. In addition to visual identity, a strong brand voice is key for forming meaningful
connections with your audience. Your brand should not only represent who you are, but also reflect
and mirror the qualities and interests of your audience. And that's because people connect with
those who are similar to them, people like people who are like themselves.
A strong brand voice means consistent core messages.
Choose a few messages that you repeat in different forms
over and over again,
so that your audience remembers what you stand for
and how you can transform and improve their lives.
For example, I have core messages
that I repeat over and over again.
I remind my audience that you're never too young
or too old to learn something new, and that if a gatekeeper tells you no, find another path.
These are messages that resonate deeply with them because it reflects their own values of resilience,
growth, and empowerment. By weaving in these messages into my content consistently,
whether it be through interviews, stories, or videos, I help my audience know
what to expect from me and I reinforce the value proposition that I have for them.
Someone else with a super consistent brand is Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary Vee.
He told me that consistent branding requires more than just an effective message.
It means knowing exactly who you're targeting with that message.
Speaking of niches, let's talk about creating audiences. Because like you just talked about,
we can talk about multiple topics.
We don't have to be scared about that.
We can be a dynamic person on social media,
which means we're gonna be speaking to multiple audiences.
That's right.
And you say we should develop cohorts with teats.
So what do you mean by that?
When I make content, sometimes I'm like,
this piece of content that I'm gonna make
is gonna hit 45 to 55 year old first time moms
on the coasts.
More New York LA mentality
than London, than Ohio, than Spain.
So if I know that I'm doing that,
don't you think that my adjectives and analogies
tone intent, right?
So I want everyone who's listening
to start thinking about cohorts.
Gary, what do you mean?
I just do sneaker content.
Okay, well there's a lot of different niches
within sneaker content.
There's people of high net worth like myself
who can afford bougie fucking, you know,
Nike, Air Force One collaborations.
There's other people who just like really like New Balance.
Like there's the Reebok movement that I'm getting into as well.
Like there's a lot going on.
Crocs, if you wanna expand it a little bit.
Like, do you know who you're making this video for?
Because everyone's going to vanilla.
I make content for entrepreneurs.
I'm like, okay, knock yourself out.
You know what?
Like, imagine how much better a piece of content is
that you know that you're gonna make,
I'm gonna make content for first generation
Hispanic entrepreneurs that are 18 to 22
that came from immigrant parents that came from Mexico.
I'm gonna use analogies.
I'm gonna make reference to rigatone.
I'm gonna talk about San Antonio culture.
Like, like.
Use their slang and however they talk.
100%.
It's called relevance everyone.
If you're not relevant to someone,
the second I make a long tail bar stool joke,
every bar stool dude is like, fuck yeah.
Like, like it's not super complicated.
And so, because everyone gets so boring
in vanilla right away.
People say to me all the time, they're like, it's a really funny thing
that I fuck people up with, like,
because I've been so consistent in growing
and all this stuff, but then sometimes they'll be like,
but Gary, you say the same shit.
I'm like, what do you want me to make up stuff
I don't believe in?
And then they go, if they stick with me in that combo,
they start to realize, ah, I say the same macro 15 things,
but the way I say it differently,
and how, and where, where and what and to whom,
that's the game.
So cohorts, these are consumer segmentations.
In old television talk, it was,
we're trying to reach the 18 to 35 year old demo.
I like to think, and I know I'm looking at your crew a lot
because I like doing that,
like I like to think everyone in here
is at a point in their lives where they realize
an 18 year old person and a 32 year old person
and a same person are very different.
But that was television.
You didn't have the internet.
Now that we have the internet,
like everybody who's listening should be posting on Facebook.
It's huge.
Still, I'm getting 25, 30 year old audience on Facebook.
Now they're on there like once in a blue moon
compared to whatever,
but like,
you should be relevant to Facebook audience.
You should be relevant to TikTok audience.
Snapchat's culture is slightly different than TikTok's.
It's all different rooms out there
and you wanna be in every room.
There you go folks.
As Gary puts it so well, you have to be in every room.
To have an effective brand message today,
you've got to be relevant.
You need to know your audience and every cohort
and segment within that audience.
But where do you start?
How do you identify the audiences
that your brand will resonate with most?
Well, sometimes it's as simple as focusing
on one very important person.
A powerful strategy for building a loyal community
is creating content with a single person in mind,
your ideal audience member.
Business strategist, Jasmine Star calls this approach
the foundation of building your kingdom online.
By focusing on one person,
you can transform your content from simple broadcasts
into genuine personal connections.
Here's Jasmine Star explaining how focusing on one person
and engaging authentically helps to build
a thriving loyal community around your brand.
You know, if you say,
Jasmine, I'm not getting direct messages.
Great, go to accounts where you can follow stories.
And if you have like a, they can vote,
if you can vote on something, vote on something.
And if you can respond to a story, respond to a story.
We want to create a little
tiny kingdom that is your business and your kingdom is up on a hill. And then there's the villagers down below. How do
people know that your kingdom is on the hill? You have to go down into the village, tell everybody, hey, there's a kingdom
up there. And how you do that is by giving comments, liking photos, sending DMs so people become aware. So when we go back to niching down, this makes creating content so much easier.
If you feel frustrated, if you feel overwhelmed,
you feel like creating content is taking so much time,
let's narrow it down to not just a niche,
I'm actually gonna upload this.
I'm gonna say create content for one person.
Who is your dream customer?
What do they want?
What do they need?
What solutions are they looking for?
And when you just think about that one person and you create content and you speak to that one person, customer. What do they want? What do they need? What solutions are they looking for?
And when you just think about that one person and you create content and you speak to that
one person, I know it's natural for you to think, well, if I create content for one person,
well, then nobody else is going to buy. It's actually quite the opposite. Studies have
shown and business owners will tell you that when you speak to the 34 year old farmer who
wears flannel and likes hard hats and listens to country music and drinks Budweiser.
Like, you create content for that person, it's very different than creating content
for the 56-year-old Manhattan woman with four children who vacations in the Hamptons.
When you create content for those two separate people, it will resonate differently.
So the big question is, do you know who your dream customer is?
Because when you build that out, your content becomes entirely different.
And then you get to looping back to Catherine's question,
give engagement to who you think your dream customers are.
That is how you scale.
As Jasmine shared, when you speak to one person, you make every follower feel like
they're part of something personal and valuable.
This approach allows you to move beyond surface-level engagement and build deep connections that resonate on a community level.
To add even more value, think about ways to create touch points with your audience that go beyond the usual interactions.
In the last section of this episode, we talked about creating content that resonates with a specific audience.
Now, let's take it a step further, monetizing those relationships authentically.
But this isn't selling for the sake of selling. It's about listening to your audience,
understanding their needs, and creating products or services that genuinely serve them.
This is where the creator economy has totally changed the game. As Harley Finkelstein,
the president of Shopify, told me, creator entrepreneurs have a unique advantage.
They're not starting with a product and then searching for customers. Instead,
they're building engaged audiences first and then developing products that align
directly with their community's interests.
Harley shared some great insights on how brands,
both big and small are leveraging personalization to connect with their
audiences.
Even major companies like Hanes and Oreo
are creating customized products
and engaging more directly with their consumers.
But this approach isn't just for big brands.
Creators have a unique opportunity
to build close, authentic relationships
with their followers and offer products
that reflect those connections.
Here's Harley explaining how this shift
towards creator-driven businesses
is creating a new wave of entrepreneurship.
So actually, I think this idea of the creator economy,
it's just the economy except
that there's this really cool advantage,
which is that you have a built-in audience
for your products.
And maybe third of all,
just sort of on the larger companies, a lot of companies either
never sold direct to consumer.
If you think about the CPGs, for example, Heinz Ketchup has a store on Shopify.
Heinz Ketchup never sold direct to consumer.
Heinz would sell through a grocery store.
But there are some people that really care about, like, they're obsessed with ketchup.
They love ketchup.
And they want to buy direct from Heinz called Heinz at Home.
And for the first time ever, those big brands are actually having
direct relationship, whether it's through social media.
I remember years ago, the Wendy's account was like had a real personality.
And a lot of these social media accounts of big brands actually have
personalities to the extent that their fans, their consumers want to
interact with them.
And so you have a couple of things happening with the big companies.
One is the big companies are beginning to act
a lot more entrepreneurial.
They want to have a direct relationship with the consumer.
But also they're experimenting.
They're trying new things.
A couple years ago, one of the cool things
I thought that Oreo did, which is owned by Mondalis,
is you can put as a Christmas gift or holiday gift,
you can personalize Oreos.
So there's someone in your life that loves Oreos.
You can make a, you know, Harley's,
Harley's, you know, Harley's Oreos,
Happy Holiday, something like that.
That is really interesting.
So when you come, so each of those things on their own
are kind of interesting.
When you combine those things,
you see big companies acting very entrepreneurial.
You think, you see creators, just on the creator side.
Think about these artists, like these musicians, people like, you know,
Drew House with Justin Bieber's brand that he built or OVO with Drake has built.
You see these traditional, you know, what would be a traditional musician completely expand their scope of what they're actually building and selling and creating.
When I used to go to a concert when I was a kid,
I would go to the merch table.
It was usually some sort of like shitty screen print
on some basic t-shirts, like Fruit of the Loom t-shirt.
And it said like, I don't know,
the Rolling Stones on the back was a bunch of tour dates.
Well, now you go to these concerts
and you go to like a Drake concert
and they're selling a Canada Goose OVO collab jackets.
Or you go to a Pharrell concert
and you see some of the crazy stuff he's selling,
that like, he's selling like cosmetics at the concert
that he's created himself.
So big companies are actually entrepreneurial.
Artists are now actually expanding
from just being artistic creators around music
and art and film to actually creating product.
And you can even look at the actors and actresses
that have done.
And then of course you have just more people
generally becoming entrepreneurs
and more people saying, I make amazing chicken soup
and now I'm gonna sell that chicken soup to the world.
And I think when you combine all those things,
you see people that traditionally
had not entered entrepreneurship doing so
and they're scaling at a pace that just has never been seen before.
And that's why, that's a long answer to a very short question, but that's why I think
there's an entrepreneurial renaissance happening.
Like Harley said, brands that connect with their audience on a personal level can build
something much more impactful than just a business transaction.
By focusing on what their community truly values, creators can launch products that
feel like a natural extension of their brand, fostering loyalty and long-term engagement.
And that's a wrap for episode two of the YAP Creator Series presented by Opus Clip.
Today we explored why trust and authenticity are critical to building a loyal audience and creating content that connects on a deeper level.
Remember, audiences resonate most with the real you, not the polished, perfected facade of you.
It's about embracing your quirks, sharing your journey, and letting your personality shine through.
We also talked about how video is one of the most powerful tools for building trust, and that's where Opus Clip can be a total game changer.
Opus Clip uses advanced AI to help you extract the most authentic and
engaging moments from your content.
Whether it's a heartfelt story, a quirky interaction, or an insightful tip,
Opus Clip makes it easy to transform those moments into shareable clips that
can truly connect with your audience.
Are you ready to take your content to the next level?
Then try Opus Clip for free and see how it can elevate your storytelling.
Head to opus.pro slash clip anything to get started today.
That's opus.pro slash clip anything to get started today.
Thanks for tuning in and I can't wait to connect with you all again for episode three,
where we'll continue to unlock the secrets of content creation.