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Twice weekly show providing social media updates, trend alerts, original content ideas, strategy session, industry guests, tutorials and more!
Welcome to the Muthership Creator Strategy. Happy Friday. How does that sound? We are definitely doing a rebrand on all of the things. So you're gonna see some things changing.
Helen:I'm so excited about it. Julie is just the queen of figuring this out step by step, and we are in it. So a few things that are happening, I'm gonna tell you upfront, then I'll get into unsponsored by, and then the topic for today. So first off, we are moving our newsletter to Substack, and this is something we were talking about for a while. And then it was funny because it came up on one of our studio meetings, and we didn't wanna say anything at the time, but we because we hadn't even made the official decision, but we've decided that with how things are changing on the social media platforms, that it is probably a good idea to jump into the Substack space.
Helen:And instead of starting a completely new feed, I guess you would say, or social media press for me especially on Substack to start now a whole new account over there. We have the existing membership on the newsletter. So, just made sense for us to do the shift. So, that's happening. Starting next week and this podcast is also going to be rebranded.
Helen:So, everything is changing too. We've got muthership creator forecast. That is the newsletter. That's the Tuesday with the trends, content ideas, planning, social media, things that I see. We're gonna cover all of that.
Helen:We are only gonna have one issue per week. This way, the strategy session that I cover here on the podcast will be the Friday session. So Tuesday will be a newsletter. Friday will be a podcast. And in the Tuesday newsletter, we will let you know what the topic is for the Friday podcast.
Helen:This way, you know if you wanna tune into it, if it's something that you're interested in, you'll have advanced warning about that. So we'll have the forecast on Tuesdays, the strategy as a podcast on Fridays. And the newsletter will be coming from Substack. And you should be able to you will be able to, not should. You'll be able to comment on the newsletters and see them chronologically.
Helen:So they're they'll all save. So it's not like you have to search back through emails. You'll be able to go to the feed, and you can look at last week, the week before. If there's something that you missed, it's all gonna be in a nice digest, which I have thought about calling it the well, Julie thought about calling it the Mothership Creator Digest. So maybe TBD on that.
Helen:Who knows? We might we might go down that path. We'll decide. I just think for me, the word digest reminds me of Reader's Digest and it feels dated. I know.
Helen:That's a strange thing. But if you're in the age that you know about Reader's Digest, know what I'm talking about. So think maybe that's why I was I didn't grab onto it as quickly as I probably should have. But anyway, TBD on that. So where what I am telling you is that we are doing this whole shift, and it's all gonna be aligned, and it feels really good in my soul.
Helen:Okay. Now let me tell you about my unsponsored by pick of the week. And I said last week that I was gonna talk about this sweater because I'm wearing it again, it's cozy as hell. And it's perfect for today because it's sweater weather out there. It's like 30 degrees in New York, which is crazy.
Helen:It went from sixties to thirties. It didn't even, like, slowly go go down. I'm sure it's just a temporary little freeze. But because it's sweater weather, I put my sweater back on. It is saltwater luxe is the brand.
Helen:So it's the word saltwater and then l u x e. And I have had so many compliments on this sweater, and I've only worn it a couple of times. So I'm gonna go now down a path and look for this look at the brand and see what else they have because clearly it's a good style and the people that have commented are young people too. So it's not even like it's only my age women because a lot of times I'll wear something and I can really see that a certain age of people will compliment me on it. But this was like across the board.
Helen:My niece came over. I haven't seen her in a while, and she was like, I love that sweater. So it definitely runs the age gamut. So I'm gonna check out what else they have. The other pick of the week, I don't think I've ever talked about this before, and I might have, but maybe a long time ago, but I doubt it.
Helen:It's the thing that I use every single day and also heavily when I'm in production and I'm shooting for a brand. It is my portable charger. I don't know if I've ever talked about it, but if I haven't, I really should have. It is the brand is v r I think I have now that I'm reading the brand. I think it's v r u r c, and it's thick and heavy.
Helen:So this is not like slim sliding into your purse. It's a weight. It's like carrying a weight in your purse. But for a content creator that is, like, serious about it, this thing will charge my phone, I think, at five times easily. So I carry this thing.
Helen:The phone dies almost down to the end. I charge it. That's number one. It's only and it shows you the percentage. It'll go after one one time charging, it only goes down to 80%.
Helen:I got, like, another charge for the full phone. Another charge. I got the two phones, and I'm able to charge them both all day long with this thing. So to me, that's the value. I also like that you don't need a separate cord.
Helen:The connectors come right out. Comes out for Android and the iPhone fifteen, sixteen, and 17, which is great because this is also what my headphones take now, this connector. So you got the connector for the iPhones. I'm still on a 14. Confessions.
Helen:And then you got the connector connecting connector for the other phones. Also, connector this actually works for my little MiFi and it's a camera charger. It's got everything. I love it. It's not even expensive and it was an Amazon purchase.
Helen:And it has this so you can plug it into the wall. But to tell you the truth, this loosened up real quick so I can't even use this to charge it anymore. Actually have to use I just use my computer charger because it has the port here where you can charge it with the USB C and so I can charge it. Let me show you what happens. Once I plug it in, it starts to show you the percentage.
Helen:It's at 80% because I charged my phone once with it yesterday and so it takes it usually takes overnight to charge fully to 100% if this is down to zero. It does take a while to charge, but that's what I love about it. You know that it's quality, baby. You're getting a good charger if you get the v r u r c. Verruck.
Helen:I don't know how the hell you call it. Anyway, that's my pick of the week. Now for today, we're gonna get to my this is why I've come up with this topic today. Literally came again this morning, had the idea, and I wrote down notes, and I'm here with it. So the reason is I've been doing audits.
Helen:So as you know, if you've been on some of my lives lately, I've been doing a thing where we're on that transition series promo. So I'm on live consistently promoting it, and I wanna make sure I get as many people into the transition challenge because so many people wanna learn them, and then I have this opportunity to learn it all in a month for $26. And so I'm going hard on the promo, which is not usually my style, but I'm enjoying it. So every night I'm live. And when people join, during the live only, I'm offering them audits.
Helen:So what does that do? Okay. Every night, I have a list of people to audit. And since I'm going down this path and looking at the accounts, I'm like, jeez, Louise. I've gotta do a a podcast about this because I go to every account and and I'm almost sound like I'm saying the same similar types of things.
Helen:Now what I do in audits is very individualized. So I look at the person, what type of content do they seem like they'd be comfortable doing, what do I see. So I'm looking at it all individualized. But then I'm describing tips on top of that that are common a common thread of among creators. And I'm going to explain this because I have to be clear again to say the audit is not a template that I go check, check, check.
Helen:The audit is me really looking at the accounts and seeing what this person's kind of core beliefs are on their social media, what I seem to think their goals are, and I'm trying to assess this from the content. But the common theme is that they haven't thought about this on their content. What are their goals? What are their, categories? So that's what I wanna talk about.
Helen:So each person I'm advising differently, but the things I'm advising on are very similar. So that's the topic, which is somewhat strategy based. I guess we can call this, maybe a content strategy overview for this topic, and we did a lot of this in the studio last last month during our content challenge, but I'm gonna give you some top line things that have come up just in the audits this week. Ah. It's been a big week.
Helen:I've been auditing every night. Okay. Number one, if you are doing content, whether you've been doing it for a long time or not, there's people that are like, I've been posting for three years. And then I go look at their page and I said, well I see why there hasn't been progress in three years, and it's mainly because it doesn't look like you have a consistent plan or overview about your goal because your videos all have to point in a direction. So I'm gonna I like this word, and I'm gonna give my my dear friend Grace credit for it, but the North Star.
Helen:You've gotta think of what is your North Star on why you're on social media. Okay? And your North Star doesn't have to be like to sell products. I'm talking about above that. I'm above that.
Helen:Like to make money. That's not a north star. Like the north star has to be what value, or belief are you bringing to your content. And I'm gonna use myself as an example because I know my north star is truly not teaching. I know you're going think, oh yeah, obviously you have a North Star.
Helen:You're going to teach people how to do content. No, no, no. My North Star is above that. It's helping people feel seen. Think about that for a second.
Helen:Almost gets me emotional to think about it but it's like I like to all of my types of content, I hope and I think I stay with this, help me to help people feel seen. And there's a few reasons I use that as my North Star. It's because I represent a certain audience that, I'm sorry to say, oftentimes we're not seen. We become invisible. It's so funny because my husband told me this story the other day and he was like, yeah, I was in the elevator and these you know, these people were talking about this thing and it was like I wasn't even there.
Helen:And I said, oh my god. Like, and I don't think necessarily men experience this the way women experience it or at least as significantly and suddenly as we experience it. But I know you know what I mean. So I think that my oh, I guess, well the North Star, the overarching thing is to help people feel seen by putting myself in a position of being seen at this age and also giving people the tools to help them feel seen by putting themselves in a position where they can share their expertise and help them feel seen for their experience, for their value that they have to offer. I think I'm explaining it hopefully well enough.
Helen:But so go above like I want to sell on TikTok shop. I want to make money. I wanted this. Go above that and think what is your norther northern star above that. And think about your goal because that's going to help you get into like what are you now posting about.
Helen:Okay? So even if you're trying to sell products, you've got a more northerly goal than that. So if you're a woman who is, I know there's a lot of women doing the TikTok shop. Men too, I guess. Yeah.
Helen:Both. When you're doing the TikTok shop and you're trying to sell products, what are you really trying to do aside from make money, of course? But you don't always pick a product that you don't feel you don't agree with. A lot of we don't try and sell products and convince people to buy things that we don't like. At least we usually don't.
Helen:And I know a lot of the creators I've talked to who do the shop say, oh my god, sometimes I get the product and I don't like it so I send it back because I don't want them to like I'm gonna, you know, taking the product for free and not doing the ad or whatever. So there's all of that that goes on. But there has to be a reason why you're trying to promote certain things. It's like making people's lives better because they're gonna know now. They can get this charger and not have to worry about charging their phone or being near an electric electrical outlet all day if they're on the go.
Helen:So I'm not even when I tell you about products, I'm not even getting paid to do it. I'm not selling these. But my point is, my reason for telling you is because I value this and I think it makes my life better. So I'm helping you to make your life better. Is that crazy?
Helen:I don't know. Maybe I'm on a tangent, but okay. So strategy. What is your overarching goal of what you're trying to do on social media? And then what are the topics you want to post about so that you feel good talking about, you feel natural talking about, or you like making videos about, or whatever.
Helen:And then, so it's goal, topics, and what style of content do you like to post? So those are the three things that I think you've gotta all the people that I've been auditing have to think about. I'm like, okay, what are you good at? Do you like to talk? Would you rather lip sync?
Helen:Would you rather vlog? Would you like voice over? Do you like humor? Do you let a lot of people do still photos. I'm sorry.
Helen:But I'm like, you know, don't think that you're gonna build an account of social media on still photos. This isn't Instagram nine circa 2007. Okay? We have evolved. We're in a video content world now.
Helen:So you're not gonna be able to compete with photos with text all over it. Oh my gosh, that's the other thing. Text all over the screen. That's so Instagram too to me when I look at, you know, people that put like, you can see them behind it but it's all text of this story. I said, I don't want to read.
Helen:I'll read a book. I don't need to read that much. Okay. Now we're learning something about me. But I'm not a fan of the heavy duty text on screen to tell a story over a still photo or on top of a video of you sitting there staring.
Helen:I get it. Some of some of that the trends are funny that way. But as a rule, that's not going to sustain your content. So now I dove into three things really quick. So I want to just take a minute, take a pause and say, I'm not against any of the styles of video that you want to do.
Helen:It's just what I'm saying is find what's your sweet spot. Are you a person who does kitchen videos? Would you rather do a vlog, put a voice over and show yourself doing the stirring and the baking and the things? Maybe that's your style. Would you rather do lip sync and make your humor through lip sync?
Helen:I don't personally think you can build an entire account and following straight up on lip sync. I think at some point you have to rotate in another type of content. And I did advise someone on this because I noticed that this one creator I audited, there was a lot of lip sync. It was almost it was all lip sync. And it was funny and it was cute and and she was very good at it.
Helen:But it's like not enough depth for me to prompt a follow, like because somebody does a good lip sync. That doesn't so if you're trying to build and grow and create community or or get an audience for to monetize or whatever, you need to really think about how you're going to infiltrate more into the viewer's life. So okay, that's just what I'm suggesting here. Listen, you came for the thoughts, you're going to get them unfiltered. What else is new?
Helen:But I do think that if I if I think of the person and I go, oh, this person, obviously, she doesn't feel comfortable speaking maybe at this point on camera. So she's I don't wanna say hiding behind the lip sync because I hid behind the music and the dancing for a long time for a full year. I'm like, can't speak. No can talk. But I did it myself.
Helen:So it's like I'm speaking from experience. And so when I say hiding behind it, I don't mean it in a negative way because I did it myself. I wasn't confident. I didn't feel secure about the topics that everyone else was talking about until I figured out, oh I'm really secure talking about how to do something. So I found my sweet spot.
Helen:So I think it's about thinking about what style you like to do and how you can find your sweet spot in that style so that you're, okay, yes you like to do lip syncs but what else can you do to infiltrate your viewer more to make them feel like they should follow you beyond just cute lip syncs and funny lip syncs. So what's another style of content you could rotate in there? And so maybe, I will use another example that was someone else who had a lot of text and had some visuals and I said you know it would be so great if you would, if we could hear your voice instead of have to read all that text. And she did, a voice over video, basically the same thing only with a voice over and got way more engagement on it. So when I look at the accounts and I do the audits, I really get into the person and I go okay, this person doesn't obviously feel confident speaking on camera, but but maybe, again, hiding behind the camera with a voice over.
Helen:Listen, hid behind the camera for forty years in my industry. My casting director used to be like, you'd be perfect for this. I would freeze up the minute I would stand in front of a camera. So, if anybody knows, I know. I've been I've traveled the road kind of thing, so I know know it's not easy.
Helen:But to do the things because you're not comfortable is not going to get you where you want to go. You have to figure out how you're pushing through and finding something that is maybe a little out of your comfort zone. You don't have to fully go from no face content to face content. You can ease your way to something in between. Alright?
Helen:So that's overarching topic number one is thinking about what your why, your strategy, and your style. So that all fits under content number one. Number two, we fit we're talking content rotation now. So thinking about categories of content that you might want to post and then how you're going to rotate those in your pay on your page as you post. So when I say categories, let's pick a person who does different type, baking content.
Helen:I'll I like to just try and do it outside of my own because I can give you my content, strategies or pillars, sorry, categories or pillars, but that you know, maybe you can't relate to that. So I'm gonna give you like an example of you do baking content. So so maybe some of your videos or the bulk of your videos are recipes. And then maybe you have your favorite cookbook is what is a video. So now it's like house, baking tips where you do either speaking video or voice over video where you show your favorite, cooking tips or baking tips, like where you get your recipes from or how you how you do certain tricks in the kitchen like how do you save your lemons when you cut them in half.
Helen:I don't know. I'm making it up. As an example. Okay. Another thing might be your tools.
Helen:You you might share your favorite baking tools. So you can do tips, then you can do tools, then you can do recipes, and then you can do behind the scenes of how you're setting up to make your baking videos. Okay? So that's four styles of content within your overarching topic. Okay?
Helen:Now I'm gonna I'll tell you mine. So now we have the tutorial, the TikTok teacher. Okay? My goal my North Star, making helping you feel seen. But my videos, the bulk of them, are teaching you how to make videos because that's empowering and it shows you how.
Helen:So I have the teaching videos. But then I have a production career. So I rotate in behind the scenes when I'm on shoots so people get to know me a little bit. Oh, wait. She has a day job.
Helen:By the way, when I post those videos, they never get any views and a handful of people will be like, I didn't know you do that. Yeah. Because the algorithm isn't showing you those videos. But I show a bit of myself and that creates community and loyalty amongst my viewers because they they they've now somehow I'm more legitimatized to them. Like, have the receipts.
Helen:I have the credentials for doing what I'm doing. So, it's behind the scenes. And then I'd like to do trends, and the reason I like to do them is to teach because I like to practice them to teach them. So, it's related. And then when I do the trends, I tend to put like, would you like to learn this or teaching this one up next or TikTok teacher hitting this, hitting the transition, something like that.
Helen:I always try and bring it back to my core mission. And then my other stuff is just random fun and joy. So I think that fits into a lot of things which is my family content, my dancing on the street with strangers, when I, go somewhere and I do a vlog about an event or a place or a travel or whatever. So that all fits into like my little pocket of joy content. So it's tutorials, it's behind the scenes, it's I forgot the third one.
Helen:It's joy what was the third one? Oh my god. Behind the scenes. Oh, trends. So it's my own fun, and then it's just like behind the scenes joy.
Helen:Okay. Whoo. Anyway, so think about your rotation. Now, why do I talk about that? Because if you're posting five, let's say you love doing lip sync videos, but now you hear me and you're like, oh, I have to have four other three other types of categories.
Helen:So let's say you pick three other types at least two other categories, maybe rotate, okay, where you have two types of videos. You don't want someone come to your page and only see five lip sync videos in a row and never see because what if they followed you for when you talked about that event you went to and the blah blah blah thing where you were speaking. That's maybe what they wanna hear more of you speaking. And when they come to your page, if they have to scroll through five, ten lip sync videos to get to see you speak again, they're not gonna follow you as necessarily as readily. So you need to rotate so that when someone likes a video and then comes over to see if they wanna follow you, they wanna go through and see what else you've posted, and they don't wanna have to go through ten, twenty scrolls to get to something similar to what they just followed you for.
Helen:So I always suggest a consistency in the rotation. Okey dokey. So rotate those. Think of your cadence. I will do a tutorial, then a trend, then a behind the scenes, and then a little dance, and then a tutorial, then a trend.
Helen:I rotate. I don't do it like I'm not rigid. Sometimes I go, oh my god, have two tutorials in a row. Sometimes three. And I'll post I'm I'm running with it, know, when I'm on a roll.
Helen:But for the most part, I would post those more frequently. And then I would I wouldn't post like dancing in the street, dancing in the thing, dancing I wouldn't post like five dancing videos in a row because then if someone happens to see a tutorial in comms, they're gonna go, oh, doesn't really teach that often. It's just once in a while. Like, I don't even find another lesson. Okay?
Helen:I hope I explained that enough. That was very wordy, but, know, what can I what can I say? I I the person who never liked to speak on camera now, I never shut up on camera. And then the third thing to think about when it comes to content strategy is the quality of your content. So as I'm doing these audits, and I've done a whole newsletter and podcast on this, so I'm not gonna redo it.
Helen:I'm just gonna give you the highlights and tell you to go watch go listen to that other podcast, common creator mistakes, common and all the editing tips I give. Okay? Because I have seen it all. I go to these audits and I'm like, music's too loud, can't even hear what they're saying. Lighting, what?
Helen:They're shooting in front of a window, I can't even see their face. Editing, huge pause at the beginning, pressing the button, breathing 20 times in and out before they start speaking, big pauses in the middle, no, no, no, no, no. You've got to be go, go, go. You've got to keep your audience, you have to have an opening hook line. Oh, that's the other thing, opening hook line.
Helen:That was one, it's one of my biggest comments on these audits is like your first three seconds, you've lost your audience. Hi, I'm so and so. Hey, friends. Hi, peeps. Hi, TikTok.
Helen:I've talked about this a 100 times. I'm not gonna overdo it. And I know you guys that listen already know this, but so it's quality of content, music, lighting, tightening, and lastly, and I wanna say most importantly, no, but lastly is, well, audio quality, but most importantly, formatting. When I see videos that sometimes is black on the top and the bottom, some and it's one video and it goes from full screen to short screen, full screen, short screen. I don't it's so unpleasant to watch that.
Helen:I your eye doesn't even know why you don't like it, but I'm gonna tell you why because it's not formatted correctly. Okay. So today turned into a bit more of a rant than I intended, but the idea for me to get across to you is when I'm doing audits and I'm seeing consistent things like this where I often think this is second nature until I realize no, that's why I'm here. It's not second nature and most people don't know it. So I'm here to tell you it.
Helen:Okay? And if you already know it because you're in my studio, I love you for listening anyway and listening to me go cuckoo over here. But it is my passion and I can't help but want to help you level up. And so yay to that. Also, yay to major growth in the studio this week.
Helen:I want to give myself a little round of applause because I figured it out. I cracked the code. I have I don't wanna have to sell. I wanna be able to just share and say it's so good. It's so positive.
Helen:I would love to make a business out of it. I'm not lying. I'm not pretending. You know what I mean? I I know that production, I love what I do in my day job, but I I at some point, I am going to probably age out of that.
Helen:Isn't that awful to say? I still don't think I'm aging out of it because I'm the most relevant person right now when it comes to the shoots. But I also think, I don't know, that's long days and a lot of like my who knows what my future holds in production. And I would like to make this sustainable business, but I can't be the salesperson that's like, you gotta join. So it's really tough for me because I just don't, I just want people to know the value and realize that I'm not a scammer.
Helen:I'm not like the rest of these, you know, people like join my thing and then they just get like one video every month to view and it's like, you know, I think I might have to edit this part out. Actually, I'm just gonna keep on going because you are my core people. I don't want to have to be a salesperson. I just want to be the teacher. I want to share and I want it to happen because you want the help.
Helen:So, that's it for me today. Duh duh ding. My my alerts are ringing. I'm gonna wrap it up. I forgot to silence my phone.
Helen:Anyway, thank you so much for being here today with me and I am excited for this new adventure to jump into the Mothership branding full on. And here we go. It's like the rocket ship and we're ready. So thank you so much for riding on the ship with me. And trust me, I am here to help you become a better creator.
Helen:And that is what I think that my purpose has become. So I can thank, I guess TikTok for starters with that, and I can thank you for joining me for the ride. See you soon.