Welcome to the Muthership Creator Strategy. Happy Friday. I've missed you. I hope you had a good week. I have such good news today.

Drumroll, please. We are actually sponsored by the Descript app for HubSpot, which helps creators edit faster, repurpose smarter, and track content performance all in one workflow. So if you're struggling with editing and you're trying to learn and you're with us in the studio and you're plugging away, but you need a quick solution that is AI based, check it out. The link is in the show notes. So let's carry on the subject for today.

And I'm really happy that I'm re I'm I'm sort of retalking about this because it is becoming more important right now with what's happening on TikTok. People are turning to other platforms, and they're, for example, trying to well, going live on TikTok, I'm not getting as many viewers anymore. I'm gonna go live on Instagram, and lo and behold, they're not getting any viewers over there. Because the strategy for going live on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook is very different than the strategy for TikTok. So I wanna talk about that first, and then I'm gonna talk about going live in general and what things to think about, especially if you're new to doing lives or if you don't like doing lives.

Okay? So we're gonna break it down step by step. And first, I'm gonna talk about the differences because I think that even seasoned creators don't realize that if you are someone who's gone live a lot on TikTok and you've had good success with your lives, you have good engagement on the lives, TikTok is pushing your live out and whatnot, you're very accustomed to having a certain amount of people in there. And then you just say, you know what? I'm frustrated.

My lives are not getting as many views right now because of the way the app has changed. I'm gonna try going live on Instagram, and then you have, like, three people in there, and no one's talking. No one engages on Instagram in the comments the way they do on TikTok. I'm gonna tell you that if in case you are gonna jump in and think it's gonna be the same. No.

I don't know why. I really don't. I couldn't tell you. I mean, it's just it's almost like the personality of Instagram versus the personality of TikTok. That says it all in a nutshell.

If you know, you know. But you really need to rethink it. If you're gonna go live on one of these other platforms, the planning is more important than the doing even. So when I say the planning, I mean you need to set a time and a date, and you need to announce, announce, announce ahead of time. It is so much more important on those apps that you are letting people know, and they are putting it basically, they put it on their calendar.

They put it in alerts. They are aware of it. It will come to that time of the day, and they're like, oh, I think I was supposed to be on a lot watch a live today. Trust me on this one. It has worked for me, and it goes way back even to pandemic times when I was doing a raffle on Sunday nights.

I would always remind people, first in the post, in the comments, there's gonna we're gonna be a raffle on Sunday night at 7PM. Then the day or two before, don't forget, Sunday night, make sure you enter in the raffle. So mine we're we're very raffle driven, which is a strategy, by the way, if you wanna do get engagement on your lives and actually do a live raffle. That's a really good one, especially if you have a small small enough viewership where you can manage raffles where I used to have, let's say, 30 or 40 people at the most would would be entered in the raffle. So I was able to do it manually and put paper in a in a bucket and literally pull the names.

You know? It was a lot of fun. And people love old school things, so that is just a suggestion if you wanted to try something like that. But announcing your live and sort of saying what what you're gonna be doing or what it's about or if you're bringing someone on and you're gonna interview someone, that's what happens on a lot of lives. You need to beat them over the head with it.

You can't tell them enough. You're gonna put it on your story two days before. Put it on your story the day before. Put it on your story the day of. Put it on your story an hour before.

You need to you can always take it off as soon as the live is over. You know what I mean? Put it out there again and again and again. That's the main way you're gonna get good engagement on your Instagram lives, and YouTube and Facebook are a little bit even further removed in a weird way. Well, Facebook is very similar to Instagram because if you have your followers there and if you've told them.

But YouTube is a a little bit different because I always feel like my TikTok audience feels like they're this close to me. I feel my YouTube body my Instagram's audience is here. I'm, like, making my hands wider and wider for those who are listening. And then my YouTube audience is further. So you don't have as tight a connection on the on the YouTube app, so you've really gotta you got you've gotta put the content out there to remind.

Do it in YouTube shorts. Do it again and again. You may find you're getting more engagement on YouTube if you start doing lives. I'm gonna start experimenting myself and see how that goes so I'll be able to report back. But the important thing is to know the difference.

With a live on TikTok, yes, you can let people know. But for the most part on TikTok, lives get pushed out. People are always watching lives, and it's a very live driven platform. So there's always more viewership by the nature of the app itself. Alright?

So if you're gonna go into these other platforms, don't expect it to be the same type of quote tight friendship even though they're not they're still strangers. They're there, you know, and they're gonna be in your in your lives. But if you do it on Instagram, make sure you make some make make some planning involved and have then and I'm gonna talk about what to do on the lives, but you should definitely know that you're not gonna get the same kind of thing that you get on TikTok if you're so so used to that. Alright. I think that's important to know.

Now for lives in general, for those people who don't like to do lives, I'm gonna almost encourage you. Not that I wanna sell you on it, but I mean, go I'm gonna encourage you to put it into your strategy, into your plan even if it's not once a week, even if it's once every other week. Honestly, I hate to even say once a month, but it is definitely a way to put yourself in touch with your community a bit tighter. So you're you won't believe what the what happens. It's so different when you are seemingly available through that screen versus being further removed just on a video.

There is something psychologically where people become more connected. So if you are trying to garner, whether it's community or more followers or more engaged followers or loyalness among your followers, I almost think lives are a necessity. It really makes a huge difference. So for those of you who are going, I don't wanna do it. I don't like it.

I'll give you some tips on how to get through it, but I want you to just maybe challenge yourself in 2026 to say, I'm gonna do it once a month and, you know, like, take the medicine and just see. Because the more you do it, the easier it gets, and it the rewards are are big. So here's the tips, but I'm gonna at the end, I'm gonna tell you what I mean when I say the rewards are big. So remind me. I'm gonna talk about that.

Alright. Here we go. Number one, if you have a a smaller following, you're gonna have a lower viewership. But if you have a bigger following and you think, oh my god, I have a million followers. I'm gonna have, like, a 100,000 people in my lives.

Nope. A million followers, I get an average of 50 people at a time in my lives, 50 to a 100. On occasion, when it's like the hot time of of the evening, I'll get a 150 to 200. But listen. It is not what happens.

It's a low amount of numbers. It's a low number. And so it's common to have get on and it's zero for a while, or people will come in and go out. Like, I I you can't even get insulted because sometimes there'll be, like, five people, and then it goes down to one. And I'm like, they hated me in the first five in the first few seconds they left.

Whatever. Sometimes people end up in a lie by mistake. They accidentally press the button or they're scrolling and they tap and then, oh my god, and then they have to get out. So I have done it. So I understand it.

So I don't hold it against anyone. But you you have to do is know you're gonna keep going. The other thing that I will say about that about going live is that it used to be really good to post a video, especially on TikTok, before you go live because then the platform tends to push your content out. Now with the new algorithm, I haven't seen if that is still happening, so I don't wanna give that advice without having proof of it. So I'm gonna test on the next few lives to see if it is still working that way.

It used to work that way. You post a video, and then automatically your video would get pushed out a bit more when you were live. That's just a fact of how it used to work. I just don't know. I can't confirm that it's still happening like that right now because of the recent changes that have happened on the app, and who knows if they they kinda touched that tool switch and did something different.

I can't be sure. So I don't like to I don't like to put something out there where if I'm not if I don't have proof of it from my own self. I I don't like to just believe hearsay. I like to have proof myself. Aren't you grateful that I'm not lying or just telling you because so and so said it that must be true?

Because I'm not going to do that. I want to know if it's true myself before I say it's true. Alright, and the next thing, and this is true, is plan a list of topics because it will help you in case you have comments that are off topic or people that are trying to change the subject or whatever. You can start to ignore that and go back to your list. Stay on task.

And I'm gonna give you, like, a task, a reason even another reason to stay on task, which is coming at the end. But staying on task is super helpful because you'll you'll you'll not let it get take on a life of its own and get out of control, which can happen. And there are some people that come into lives, and if they're not getting attention right away, they will put in those comments again, again, again, again until you say something. And so use the mute button. Go, you know, wherever you are, whether it's Instagram or TikTok, you can mute people when you are on that live.

And especially, it's it's way more rampant. Is that the right word? I don't know. On TikTok where you're gonna have people that could be trolling or saying things off topic or coming in with political opinions or whatever. You know, they do it all the time on mine.

And I sometimes they're grayed out because they get filtered by the platform, but other times, I can just tap the three dots and tap mute. And then it just takes that out of the chat so you're not distracted because believe me, I have people that that I know that come into my lives often, and they will incessantly type, like, the same comment over and over. And I'm just like, oh, it's so hard to stay on task when they're trying to talk about something else. Like, they have their own agenda, and they're coming in again and again and again. And I really will, even if it's someone I know, I will mute them if they're trying to really take me off topic because I just I can't have that.

I have to be able to I'm there for a reason. I have I'm serving my community, and I wanna make sure I'm staying on track. Okay? So plan your list of topics. It really helps and gives you something to do.

When you are confused, you could you could plan like a little quiz. I really highly recommend if you are new to doing lives, almost make it like a plan as if you were gonna not be on stage, but you were going to, like, lead a class or lead a group in a discussion. So have your, you know, your plan if it's gonna be a quiz or if you're gonna do a q and a. Q and a is great because you ask people things and they'll type in the chat. You immediately have engagement on your live.

So that's why I say plan. Plan. Plan. Planning is the best thing you can do as a new live doer, live goer. The other thing is if you can bring a friend, you can plan to do live with someone, and we have when I have requests in the studio, I will do a group live where I'll bring in a couple of people so peep so they can feel comfortable for the first time being on a live, seeing what it's like, to see the comments come up on their while they're so they're commenting reading comments and talking at the same time.

There's a lot of multitasking that has to go on. Otherwise, you're gonna be silent if you're staring down and you're reading and reading and then you're looking up. So you have to give yourself some space to learn how to multitask in that way where you're not staring down at the screen the whole time. You're engaging. You're engaging.

Then you're reading. Then you're you know what I mean? And, also, don't read those comments out loud until you read them in your head because there are trolls that will come in and, put strings of words that if you read them out loud, they have another meaning. So beware. Beware.

Beware. The other thing is on your lives. I know I always say on your videos to keep it personal. On lives, my tone changes slightly because I know that there are a group of people. They are still one by one in their homes, but in this case, they are not listening alone on their phone.

They are listening, and they are aware of a group around them in the comments. So it's definitely a little different. So we go from super personal FaceTime call when you're on a on on a video, making a video making video content. But when you're on a live, I'm gonna say you can take that a notch up, and I will use the idea that you're on a Zoom with a group now. So now you are leading a webinar or a leading a group, more of a group thing.

So it's okay to say, oh my god, guys. I gotta tell you this because I will do that. I will I will never say hi, guys, on my videos ever. You won't ever hear it come out of my mouth. But when I'm on a live, oh my god, guys, you are not gonna believe what I got because clearly there are like 15 people in at a time or 20 or 30 or 40.

Now I have a group. It's a small group, so I address them as a group. And I think there is value in creating that group because that's a community situation now. You're getting them to kind of, engage with each other, and you'll find that they some of them know each other, and you wanna foster that in your lives. That's so important.

Fostering community is just a big part of the experience of social media, so I highly recommend that. We also I also wanna remind you, yeah, you can engage in the comments, read the comments, but you can ignore the comments. It's hard to type in the comments. It's better to use your voice. But, occasionally, I'll say, it's right up here or, oh, oh, somebody asks the name of your the name of the podcast.

So I'm trying to find a little spot on the screen. I'm trying to comment, write the name of my podcast. So whatever you can to put your information up at the top, which I have a tutorial for that. I'll try and remember to link it, but I have a tutorial for how to put things above your head so that if you do wanna talk about something over and over again, you don't have to keep saying it. It's up there and it's above you.

You also can use it to promote. Okay? So that's up there. It's a really, really good strategy. And I will say that, this is kind of the part that I wanna say.

When you're trying to stay on task and you're trying to make your live about a specific thing, whether you're trying to sell something or promote something, having it up there and you can't almost say it too much because you're constantly having an ebb and flow of people coming in and going out. So you can't think of it as you presenting on stage and the same group has been listening the whole time because they have not. You will have turnover every minute. So you can repeat yourself often, and the people who are in for a long time, they won't care if you're repeating yourself. Trust me.

They won't. And if they do, they'll leave and move on, you know. You've gotta know that it's the purpose of Alive is repetitive, repetitive, repetitive of your subject because you're trying to foster that community around your topic. And if you are trying to promote a service, a coaching business, or whatever, you need to disclose it before you go live. So make sure you go into the settings, go into content disclosure.

You'll turn it on, and it will say my brand promote your own brand or promote another brand or whatever. It gives you two options. If And it's your own brand, if it's your coaching services or something, you know, let's say you're a lawyer. You're trying to get business. I don't know.

That's the that's where you need to disclose that. Otherwise, you will get a violation on your live if you don't. So make sure that is mucho mucho importante. You need to disclose that for sure. And if you forget to do it, it's sometimes it's problematic because you can't do it after the fact in some cases.

Now I can, but there was a time where somebody was like, go down. Scroll. You can do it now. And I was like, no. It's turned off.

It's a grayed out. It's not working. So sometimes it works to do it after, but I highly urge you to do it before if you are going to promote someone. Something, not someone. The other thing is, well, I'm gonna call this the last thing actually.

No. I'm gonna tell you one thing and then I'll give you the last thing. The one more thing is that try to be real and try not to be so fake because a lot of people think now they're on stage, now they're performing, and the tone changes so much that now you're like a theatrical actress or something. And I mean, how do I say this in a weird way about myself? Even when I'm on and it's a group, I'm a little bit of a different person than I am when I'm one to one because I'm like with my with a group, and now I'm in a friend group, and maybe I'm, like, talking louder.

I don't know. Do you know how your tone changes potentially depending on the crowd you're with? Same kind of thing happens on a live versus a video, But it still needs to be you. So and this is the true acid test. I'm gonna tell you the acid test, is when someone you know comes into your live.

First off, first, is it like uncomfortable because now they're there and it's like, oh, they're seeing you in a different light. But second, are you uncomfortable because they are seeing the not real version of you? Okay? Just take that one for a minute and let it percolate. Because I do think, and I'm trying to think because it happened to me a few times where someone would come in and I'm like, oh my god, my cousin's here.

I actually welcome it, but I could I can see a situation where if someone was being a little bit more over the top or being a little bit more I don't even know what the word would be, salesy or something. I could see it being uncomfortable for the person. It's like, oh gosh, now I'm embarrassed because I'm I'm so animated and I'm and my cousin knows I'm not like this in real life or something like that. So good I mean, for me, my cousin knows exactly who I am in real life and who I am on the live pretty much matches. So it's it is what it is.

It's just so funny because she recently came into a live which made me think of her. And, yeah. So that was that's always fun. For me, I get excited when I see someone I know and then they're live. I'm like, my god, you're here.

You know? But there are people who freak when that happens. So I think if you can think, if someone came in now that I knew, would I be embarrassed? Would I be proud? Would I be, like, what would my feelings be?

And that's what you need to tap into to know if you're being real. Okay? That's a little tip. Okay. The last thing is if, and this is the big one that I've learned, If you are trying to promote something on your live and you want to do and you really like let's say you're trying to sell something.

You're trying to convince someone to buy something, whether it's join the studio in my case or go to your PDF to download if you just wanna collect emails. So go to my email list and download this PDF of blah blah blah blah. The thing that's very, very, sort of clutch oh, because it's the only word I could think of right now when you're live to to to make to really trigger someone to move in that moment to it is if you're offering something that you don't offer normally. And I learned this I'm gonna say the hard way just from being on lives and talking about my studio and, you know, telling people the value and here's what we do in there. Having people in the comments who are from the studio that are like, we love the studio blah blah blah.

Until I started putting, if you join while I'm live, I will do an audit for you. And that literally changed the game for me. So and and I love doing them, so I had no problem with them. Like, this is great. I get to know the people that are coming in.

I can get to see their account. I get excited about, like, learning about who my members are. It really, really helps me. So it's it weirdly, it's a double benefit, so I I don't even I don't even mind it. It's it's it's a funny thing, and I wish I'd had thought of it sooner because it's value to them, but it makes them act now, act right in the moment.

And instead of you tell somebody and they're like, yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna join tomorrow, and and I will just say, that's fine, but this this audit only works if you join now. And if you and if you're listening to this live right now and you're thinking about it and you get off the live, and then over the next hour, I will be watching, and you can send me a message and say you just saw this on the live, and I will honor it. So that gives people time that if they came in at the end of the live and then they're like, oh, I missed it, they can still do it, but it's not an open ended, like, thing.

So I hope that last tip helps you because truly, truly, it is game changing for your mindset. And and I know it's maybe a basic sales technique, and it just never clicked in for me before. And I don't like to think of sales techniques because then I start thinking inside my head. I don't wanna be a salesperson. I just wanna help people.

You know? So I get wacky mixed up inside my head. But for for those of us who have to face reality, like, that's what we are doing when we're trying to promote our community or promote our business, we have to be salespeople. It sucks. You know?

It sucks. But there you go. Alright. So on that note, if you would like to learn about special effects this month in the studio, I am serving you with lots of different special effects of how to put text and move text and have it be revealed behind you. I am teaching, more details about stop motion and how to use stop motion on your own outfits, on your own clothing changes, in your kitchen videos, no matter where you are, your vacation your vacation videos.

So I'm teaching how to do special effects and use them for different things. So if you learn one effect, it's not just used for this one thing. You can do stop motion. You don't have to move products into a box. You can say, oh, I'm gonna have my clothes pop on.

I'm gonna have my cooking ingredients appear on the appear on the table. Whatever. There's so many different ways you can use special effects. So And you can use the same special effect. So if you want to learn them, and they will lock in, and you will have such value, and your videos will be better.

They will get attention. They will get more engagement because you're doing something clever. So come and join us. You won't regret it, and the information is in the show notes. See you next week.

Have a good one.