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The Undercurrent is a biweekly news feature show written and produced by students from Michigan State University. Each episode explores multiple stories surrounding one central theme.
88.9, the impact. You're listening to
Speaker 2:undercurrent. Hello, everyone, and welcome to season sixteen episode one of the undercurrent. I'm so excited to share more student stories this season and talk about all things MSU. Today, I am joined by Elizabeth Gursky. She is known for her social media presence, especially on TikTok, and she creates content about college, Greek life, dance, and everything in between.
Speaker 2:In this episode, we'll be discussing her start with social media, balancing schoolwork, and her time at MSU. I'm so excited to have you on Liz.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining me today. Hi. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited too. So Liz, how did you actually get started with social media?
Speaker 1:Well, this is a question that's always kind of strange to me because I actually have no idea. It all came like super duper naturally to me. I was posting on TikTok in high school just like everybody else, but I guess I was a little more like natural with it. Like, I know a lot of my friends will, like, kind of use TikTok the way one would use Instagram, you know what I mean? Like, kind of, like, a post here and there and kind of cultivate it to be like, oh, should I post this?
Speaker 1:Should I not? From the beginning, literally since I was 14, I was never like that. I was always just, like, make a video, post it, make a video, post it, make a video, post it. I barely even think about it and I've been doing that since I was a child, like, I was a video star queen, like, was always just like making little music videos on my own and whatnot so I just think that it's always been super fun for me and when I was 15, I might have been 16 but I'm pretty sure I was about to turn 16. I made a video on my kitchen counter.
Speaker 1:I set up my phone and I made a video doing the splits like, on the wall, on the kitchen counter, like, something crazy because I've also been a dancer for my entire life competitively. So again, I do, like, a ton of dance content. And at the time, like, it wasn't content at the time, I was just having fun and that blew up and I think that originally had, like, 5,000,000 views that month. Dang. And I was 15.
Speaker 1:So I was, like, gassed. I was, like, oh my gosh. Like, I was a sophomore in high school. I thought this was so cool and that was, I guess, how it started to take off. And then from there, I ended up just kind of posting similar content whether that was dance and then like my high school proms started coming around.
Speaker 1:And again, I was just posting and not thinking, posting and not thinking, posting and not thinking and things just kind of started to get traction from there and it wasn't until my end of senior year, things really, really, really started to pick up for me and I was getting a few viral videos a month and I thought, you know what? I'm gonna kinda do something with this. So I ended up taking it a little bit more seriously and I still don't take it seriously. It's still just fun for me and I still just post without thinking. But yeah, that's how it started, I would say.
Speaker 1:I love that. So naturally. I love that.
Speaker 2:So I know you were talking about like your background with dance and everything so maybe this played into it but have you always been comfortable on the camera and with social media? And I know you kind of just said it happened but is that something you've kind of like always been comfortable with?
Speaker 1:I think so. I don't think there is a moment where I've ever had to work for that necessarily. And I know that that doesn't come natural to a lot of people but then again, with my background in dance, I grew up performing. Performing. Like that was what I I mean, since I was a little girl, it was always watch me sing, watch me dance, dah dah dah dah dah as like a five year old.
Speaker 1:So going into the competitive dance world, it's very performative and it's very put on a show, be comfortable with it. There's always cameras, there's always videos, you're always trying to impress and perform for somebody. So I think with that, I was always just naturally comfortable with it and originally when I started making videos, I didn't do much talking, like, wasn't necessarily, like, talking content, it was, like, music, dances, funny videos, whatever. It wasn't until I'd say the last two years that I started doing my talking content and when I did start that, it does just come so naturally to me and that's because I don't script out my videos, like I barely do. I mean, if it's an ad or something then it's scripted out because like I have a script but it's always just been so natural because I just feel like I'm able to talk to my camera as if it's a person which I'm just now realizing isn't that common, like living with roommates everything, it is kind of hilarious actually because they're always like watching me make these videos and they're like holding their laughter in the background and I'm like, are you laughing at?
Speaker 1:Like, I don't get it. And they're like, how do you sit there and talk to your phone like that? Like, it's a person, it's an object. But yeah, it's just always come natural to me. I think that it has a lot to do with my dance background and growing up performing.
Speaker 1:But yeah. I've also always been super photogenic. Like that's been a big big deal too. Like and again, I think that so has to do with dance. Like always being recorded, always staring at myself in the mirror, I think has a lot to do with it too because I think it's the same like staring at myself in the camera.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I don't know. The camera just doesn't scare me.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I know you also were talking about how like being around your roommates and like filming videos and stuff like that is like can sometimes be like an experience but I do feel like since like social media is so like big right now too, honestly like maybe it'll get easier and easier because so many more people are like wanting to like make videos, put them on the internet, like post them on TikTok. So I feel like that could be something. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've even gotten like comfortable enough to like make these videos in public which is so funny because a lot of the times like I'm getting crazy looks like I will be walking down the street, from classic class on campus and talking to my phone and people are walking by me and like they all have their headphones in too so I'm hoping that they aren't necessarily noticing But I'm I kind of that's when I get a little embarrassed, right? If I'm sitting in a coffee shop and I'm talking to my phone alone at a table, I'm just hoping people think I'm on FaceTime. But, even then, I honestly just don't really care. Like, I'm like at the end of the day, one of my biggest mottos is it's not embarrassing if you're not embarrassed. Like, they're gonna forget about it in five minutes.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna forget about it in five minutes. Why would I care? I don't care.
Speaker 2:I totally agree. Yeah. Definitely. And I feel like everyone's always staring at their phones in public anyway so it's like really not that big.
Speaker 1:You're right.
Speaker 2:And no one's noticing.
Speaker 1:You're so right about the whole like social media being big right now and influencers being so common and everyone's trying to do that, I'm trying to do that, you know what I mean? Like it is way more common and easy to see in real life, I guess. So check it out. Definitely.
Speaker 2:Is there like a video that you can remember that like really really popped off? Like one of the first ones maybe and if there is, can you tell me about it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So like I said earlier, that split video was the very first one. I remember that. And then I can tell you after the split video popped off, I only had and that was in 2022. That was in like 2022.
Speaker 1:And since then, I had a few viral videos here and there but I definitely wouldn't have I didn't gain a massive following until my senior year of high school. Prom season actually. So late into my senior year of high school and I had probably around 10,000 followers at that point and I did have like a good amount of viral videos but my senior year prom season, I made a video with my best friend Gage, shout out. We went to prom together strictly as friends and we did a dance where we, like, weren't in our outfits and then all of a sudden we were in our outfits and it was a song to like, who can it be now? And that video got gained so much traction.
Speaker 1:It has, I think, like, 25,000,000 views.
Speaker 2:That was crazy.
Speaker 1:2,500,000 likes and from there on out, almost every single prom video I made went viral, like, a 100,000 likes minimum for most of them and videos from my prom my junior year popped off too but not in the way they did this year and from there it's almost like people became kind of really interested in my high school, like, persona, like, with the prom and I posted all about, like, being a senior graduating and a lot with Gage then and with my friends and people just really, I think, loved watching, like, real content of, like, the real kind of, like, high school American dream and obviously my life wasn't perfect but it looked perfect and, like, I am so blessed. I did have such an amazing high school experience but, like, it looked like High School Musical esque on my social media and I think people were kind of infatuated with that, you know? So that video kind of started my, like, rapid following gain and then it just picked up even more when I got to college. When I started my freshman year, I started doing all the Rush videos and that was really great for me too because I think, again, it stayed authentic.
Speaker 1:Now here she she goes from being the high school American dream, now she's doing the whole college sorority girl thing and making the get ready with me's and you know what I mean? It was just it then it just like picked up really rapidly and I started gaining a ton of followers. I think now I'm at almost 200,000 across both of my TikTok platforms and then I'm nearing 10,000 on Instagram. I think it's like 7,000 something. I don't know.
Speaker 1:But that was all from the span of my senior year of high school to my freshman year of college and yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 2:Wow. That's amazing. Good for you.
Speaker 1:I'm waiting for another pop off though. Hopefully it's coming. It comes in waves is what I've noticed. It really does.
Speaker 2:So now that the semester at MSU has started, is it difficult to balance school and your content?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Yes. Like, it is actually crazy right now. We were kind of talking about this off camera a little bit before but I just started a new major this year. I wanted to do this major originally when I came to school at MSU but it was there were some complications.
Speaker 1:I can't sorry. I can't do the headphones. Have take them off. They're kind of freaking me out. It's okay.
Speaker 1:Okay. Anyways, I started a new major this year and when I came to MSU my freshman year, really, really, really wanted to do an interior design and architecture major. However, it was a really long wait list and it's a very small competitive program. So I wasn't able to join until this year, which is my sophomore year. And it is very difficult.
Speaker 1:It is super, super, super hard and a lot of work and it's something I really enjoy and I'm really passionate about. So I'm willing to do the work. But with my content creation and I kind of and this is very loose termed, but I like half halfway refer to this as my job because I do make income off of it and and I also just want to preface, like, I do not think I am a big famous influencer one bit, like, hearing you give me that intro was, like, ridiculous for me to hear because I was like, oh my god, that is so so formal for me because that is literally, I'm not that big of a deal at all. However, I do consider it kind of like a part time job for me because I do make income off of it and I do kind of rely on that to get me through, you know, some of my extra spending in college. But with school and I'm also on a dance team here, MSU Elite competitive dance.
Speaker 1:It's and I'm in a sorority too and then my hard schoolwork, it is a lot and I do find it really challenging and like I said, I think without posting or I post without thinking and I just kind of post whatever I'm feeling that day or what I'm doing or a lot of my content recently has just been, here's what I did today and I just stare at my camera and tell them what I did today. But what the problem with that is sometimes I don't I don't have anything to post. Like, I have no thoughts in my head and it's hard because it it does take like a conscious effort sometimes, you know, to like come up with content and like, what am I gonna say to the camera right now? Just because it's easy for me to talk to the camera doesn't mean it's always easy to like, think about what I'm gonna talk about. Like, it's not that easy and with my brain just so in other places like, today I was late to this podcast because I spent like seven hours on a project and I think to myself like I'm not posting enough and when you don't post enough on TikTok, you fall off.
Speaker 1:That's just what happens. Like, if you aren't consistently posting multiple multiple videos a day every single day, you're gonna fall off. You're gonna flop. And I have had my flop errors. I think I'm actually might get a flop error right now which is fine because how the app works is you go through peaks and valleys and that's okay.
Speaker 1:You can be riding high with a lot of views for a month, two months, three months, then dip down and get no views for four months and then go straight back up and have more than you've ever had. Like, that's just how it works. But to do that, you have to be consistent and you have to keep your personality and your brand and your content streaming and flowing and it does get hard. It really, really does get hard when I have 1,000,000 other things that feel more important and are more important at the end of the day, they are more important to me going on. My dance is more important to me and my school is the most important thing ever that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1:And when I feel like I don't have time to even do those things, it's how I think to myself, how do I have time to make a TikTok video right now? Like, just seems so unserious and it is at the end of the day, it is unserious but it also makes me sad. Like, when I don't get as many views as I normally do, I am constantly thinking in my head, how are you going to change that? How are you going to get back on the wagon after you fell off? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Because I know I can do that but it does take work and it does take time and like, it does take some conscious effort and it's like when you don't have the energy or time to do that, you it makes you feel a little bad, you know? But with that being said, it's a fun part time job and it's something that I'm so grateful that I get to even call that a job because like, come on, it's posted on TikTok that's not a job but you know what I mean? Like, it does get a little difficult. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's that sounds amazing though, like, way that like well, I know it can be like hard trying to like balance that but the fact that you still are kind of like posting and, like, keeping content creation at least even just on the side is, like, something, like, I think that's really great. Yeah. Is, like, posting consistently, is that something that's, like, on the forefront of your mind typically or do you just kind of, like, try your best, like, when you have to?
Speaker 1:It is on the forefront of my mind, like, a lot of the time. I will always say to the people around me like, ugh, like, I need to be posting more, like, I need to make some content, and it's honestly, I it's fun. It's really fun to do this stuff but at the end of the day, I do a lot of get ready with mes to go do this with my friends, go get ready with me to go here and or do this with me, kind of just like vlog style content. And at the end of the day, like, I don't wanna film everything I do. Like, I do, it's fun and I like it but everything sometimes I just like don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I don't wanna be getting ready with all of my friends and have to be on the camera, you know? Like or if I'm on this is a problem I find myself having constantly, like if I'm getting ready with music on and I'm on aux, I can't make a TikTok at the same time because it doesn't work like that. Yeah. So it's annoying because I'm like, oh my gosh, I have I can't have the music on because somebody else has connected me so I can make a TikTok. And everyone's like, do they have to monitor what they say?
Speaker 1:And it's like, I'm always like, no guys, I can just cut it out. But then I spend ten minutes filming my makeup routine and I had to cut that down into sixty seconds later that night before I go do whatever I was gonna do and it's time consuming and it's like, I don't always wanna I sometimes I just wanna like be there, be doing what I'm doing, hanging out with my friends and I do love to do it. Don't get me wrong. It's a lot of fun but having to think to myself, you have to do this constantly. You have to do this every single time.
Speaker 1:It gets to be a lot and it honestly gets to be a lot for the people around me too. Like, I've gotten a lot of Liz bro, like, just turn the camera off. Like, they're just like, can we just like have this moment? And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Like, you're right.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, like, kind of like gets me a little like because I'm like, come on, like, I need content. Like, this is Right. You get content by filming your life. That's what you give up when you want to do this stuff. The way to consistent content is consistently film your life and that's not always easy and it's not always easy for the people around you and it gets annoying for everyone involved.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I'm willing to like, it's not always like that. There's a lot of good things and like a lot of times I love to record what I'm doing but it's just like it is always kind of in the forefront. I'm always kind like, oh, I need to be doing more. I need to be doing better. I need to be more interesting.
Speaker 1:I need to be more, you know, and that does get kind of like roped into a little bit of a toxic cycle in your head like about influencing because it does like, when you fall off, that sucks. Like it sucks and then it's like what can I do to get back on? What can I do? I have to do more. I have to record this and that and that and that and again with school and my practice and everything, it's just like it's all a lot Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's a really is a good thing, but it is definitely on the forefront of my mind a lot. Mhmm. Like, definitely every day, if not twice, three times a day.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Am I thinking I need to be doing more? I need to be coming up with better content, improving, whatever. And it's also a just a thing of like people get it's short form content. People get bored so easily.
Speaker 1:Like how many times has everybody listening scroll past TikTok without even watching it like 1,000,000 times? You need to be doing something that people haven't seen 100,000,000 times. You need to have something that's authentic to you that people will like grab their attention for at least five seconds whether that's like your personality, how authentic you are, your content is something new. It needs to be different and it's so hard because how can you be different when there's billions of videos out there doing different things? It's hard but it's really fun and it's not negative.
Speaker 1:I promise it's not negative. That's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Switching gears a little bit, I know you said some of the ideas for your TikToks like just come to you like literally when you're walking down the street or just randomly. Do you get your ideas for your TikToks like anywhere else or do they always just come to you randomly?
Speaker 1:I feel that my biggest hits are always my random thoughts. So whenever I have a random thought, I literally whip out my phone. Sometimes I'll write it down but I don't think that works very well because when I write it down then I'll go back it to and think about it too much and it doesn't come out authentically. My biggest hits have been from me saying, literally having a thought, taking out my phone, recording it like I'm talking to my friend on the phone. Like that has been my biggest success to viral videos, I'd say.
Speaker 1:Other ideas come from if I see, like, I get a lot of inspiration from, obviously, you guessed it, Alex Earle, like, ton of inspiration from her. I think that the whole way that she's done this influencing thing, like, she's literally America's princess. I think she did so good and so I take a lot of inspiration from that just, like, her vlog style videos or, like, all of her get ready with me's for this for that, like, I don't know. I just I do find whenever I try to take inspiration from someone else, it doesn't do that well. Interesting.
Speaker 1:And that's because I told you, like, people want something different, people want something that they haven't seen before. And if they wanna watch Alex Earle's videos, they're not gonna watch Elizabeth LizKGG's videos, they're gonna watch Alex Earle's videos, like, don't want the knockoff, like, Michigan girl, they want the Miami girl and that's okay. I can be the Michigan girl for something else but it doesn't have to be to be Alex Earle, you know what I mean? So, no, honestly, my I mean, well, yes, obviously, I get inspiration duh but, like, majority of it is straight out of a thought that I have. It's just put it
Speaker 2:out That's great. Yeah. So where would you like to be a year from now? And this could be content wise or personally.
Speaker 1:Oh my. Well, a year from now, I hope that I haven't plateaued with my content creation and I hope I definitely haven't gone down with my content creation. I'm hoping to obviously increase where I am and be on an upward hill for that. I don't have many goals necessarily. I see long term, I have this little dream.
Speaker 1:Long term, I see myself becoming some sort of social figure and I know that that's so crazy because whatever but I've always seen myself, like, doing something in the public since I was, like, a little girl. Like, I always wanted to be famous. I always wanted, you know And I don't I don't feel famous. I know I'm not famous. Maybe, like, very very locally some people are like, oh, I've seen Liz's videos.
Speaker 1:But I'd hope long term I can figure out a way to make it my career and I don't take it seriously enough to make it my career. Like I am going to school for like a very specific degree and like I do want to have a career but at the end of the day, I would way rather just like be a personality, you know what I mean? Whether that's having a podcast or like doing influencing long term. I don't know. It's hard to say like in a year, I'm going to still be at Michigan State.
Speaker 1:I'm going to hopefully still be in my degree And I hope that I'm just having fun and having more of a consistent amount of views rather than the way I'm going up and down and up and down right now. I'd rather be like a little more higher and a little more consistent. But at the end of the day, if it doesn't work out for me and things don't and also, I have a theory. My theory is that TikTok is falling off and here's why. Really?
Speaker 1:Yes. I think that we have gotten so dopamine obsessed that I everyone I see around me scrolling TikTok, I they the percentage that they watch a full video is, like, less than 50% when I Yeah. That's just what I see personally. And I think that we have gotten so addicted to short form content and so addicted to that dopamine rush that we get from every single new interesting video that we see every thirty seconds that it's almost becoming numb to us and I think personally, reels, Instagram reels is taking over a little bit more because it's even shorter form content. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Like, it's somehow even shorter, like, I'm talking like a thirteen, not even, ten second funny video. People would prefer to watch ten ten second short funny videos rather than one one minute long video. I and that's just like almost a fact to me at this point. Interesting. So when you ask me where I'm gonna be at a year with my TikTok, it's honestly hard to say because I don't know how that's going to be doing.
Speaker 1:I've noticed personally that even I don't really watch and the videos are getting shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter and it's hard to and even with the TikTok creator program, your videos have to be one minute long Mhmm. Which I find funny because it's like the amount of videos that get a ton of views that are one minute long is like way way way way smaller percentage than the ones that are like fifteen seconds long Right. That are getting 20,000,000 views, you know what I mean? So in a year, I hope hope hope hope that TikTok is still doing well and that I am on the up and up and whatnot but more than that, even if that doesn't work out, I would just hope that I am happy and finding other things to fulfill me in life because my end all I have so much going for me that's not my social media and that I'm working for and I just wanna be happy and feel good about myself the way I do now and continue that and continue having all the good people in my life and being thankful and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's amazing. My last question for you. Do you have any advice for people trying to pursue social media or wanna get into it further?
Speaker 1:My advice for that is I see a lot of people that take it way too seriously and by that I mean you're getting embarrassed, you're putting in too much effort into scripting it. Mean, at the end of the day, it's TikTok, like it's, you know, like it's not that deep and you have to treat it as such because if you are working so hard to like think of content ideas and you're like, okay, well I could do a day in my life here and I could do an unboxing of my packages here and I could do this here but like you're thinking about what you're gonna say before you say it. People can sense authenticity. Like you can everyone can sense that period. And if you aren't being authentic with yourself and authentic with that camera, baby people are gonna know.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Mhmm. And like, I am not perfect at this. No one could be perfect at this. Like it's crazy.
Speaker 1:But, you just have to not think too much about it and you have to not try so hard because if you're like and with that when you're making videos like, I even if I look chopped and I pull I have a thought and I pull up my phone, I'm gonna post it regardless which is funny because, like, I do I love to, like, get dressed up for my videos and whatnot but I think that makes me even more authentic. Like, lot of my videos that blow up, I remember I made a video about a pink drink and how people were getting heavy cream in the pink drink instead of coconut milk and I made a video saying like, that's crazy and in that video, I was literally about to go to bed. I didn't even have pants on. You couldn't see in it like, it was just like my I was, like, leaned over so you couldn't see but I had no pants on. I literally just whipped out my phone, did that thought.
Speaker 1:That video got, like, like, 2,500,000 views, like and I'm, people don't even know I don't have pants on in this video. No one knows. Like, no one knows.
Speaker 2:2,500,000 people didn't
Speaker 1:know that. 2,500,000 people saw me with my skincare on, my hair in a single braid back, no makeup, in my pajama shirt, no pants on they had no idea, But you know what I it got it got, like, it did so well and I think that that's another part of it. Like, I'm not staring at my camera posing while I'm talking and there's nothing wrong with that. Like, I totally get it. Like, I do do that a lot of times and, like, in my videos where I'm getting ready or, like, if it's a video with music behind it, like, yeah, I'm, like, mogging the camera, like, I'm doing that, trust me.
Speaker 1:But for my talking videos, I wanna be my thing is I want to be I don't wanna be famous or go viral for a hit video. I want to be famous or go viral for my personality. I think that's the only way to sustain it. I think the only way to sustain a social media career is to have people fall in love with you and your personality. It's the only way that you're going going to stay on.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Mhmm. And that takes work and that takes time. I always think of the fact that and again, here I am bringing up Alex Earle for the fourth time even though I said I'm not trying to be like her. Yes, I am.
Speaker 1:She was posting videos, like, from high school up until her senior year of college until And she blew you can go back and her videos have, like, 200 likes, 50 likes, whatever. And she was making the same content Mhmm. But it took that long for people to be like, yo, like Wow. We we kind of like this girl and so I always think of it like that, like, I am on the path to maybe something that could be even close to that, You know what I mean? Like, I'm only a sophomore.
Speaker 1:I'm 19 years old. I have a lot of life left of me. I have a lot of content left in me that I could make. I mean, like, I'm planning on moving to a big city after I graduate either in New York City or London and I that's so much content right there I can make. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Like, I still have my junior year of college living in my house, my senior year of college. You know what I mean? Like, there's a lot, a lot to go and it's the only way that that gets messed up is if I'm correct in my if I'm correct in my theory that TikTok falls off and that we're getting too addicted to dopamine. I mean, if I have to move to reels, maybe I will. We'll see.
Speaker 1:I don't know. But yeah, my advice is just to be super authentic to you. Do not take things too seriously. Give it time. Like nothing is going to blow up.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna almost no one has started something and been incredibly famous within a year. Mhmm. Like that's almost unheard of. I mean, obviously it happens but you're supposed to be at it for a long time before people can notice anything and I think that goes with like literally any career like this isn't about just influencing like it can be anything. And also don't like, I would never ever consider myself an influencer or having a big following or having a big platform.
Speaker 1:Like, I do not think about it like that. So, like, the fact that I was invited to this podcast today is mind blowing to me and I'm so grateful and I'm I was so excited and I'm so happy. Yeah. But, yeah, that's my advice. Just be be authentic to you and just have fun because it's not that serious at the end of the day, period.
Speaker 2:Period. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Liz. That was really And, yeah, thank you so much and thank you for listening. Yay.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Bye.