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Welcome to the socialized forecast, October 29th, and we are getting close to Halloween. We are in the most delicious fall season ever. It has been stunning weather in New York City. The leaves are changing here. It's just beautiful all around.
Helen:I'm so happy. If I had to choose fall or spring, I would always choose fall. And I guess if I had to choose summer or winter, I'd probably pick summer because I like the beach time. But I I really enjoy winter too. So the holidays, the snow, for snowfall and all of that.
Helen:I just kind of love the changing seasons. I'm I'm definitely an East Coast girl and for that reason of the seasons. Alright. Let's, get into many things that I wanna talk about this week. As you know, Tuesday is typically for trends and content ideas.
Helen:But I like to introduce other topics at the beginning and then do some questions at the end. And sometimes the topics I introduce at the beginning, we then turn into a strategy newsletter and then do a whole session focused on it. Because today, I have been thinking about accountability, increasing productivity, and this whole idea of and it started with I when I decided I'm gonna try a group exercise class because I haven't done this since before the pandemic. Very self driven on my exercise. I go for runs.
Helen:I do my weight trainings. I do sometimes, I use an app for it. Sometimes, I just do my own routine that I I know from years of training in gyms. So I don't feel the need for the group exercise so much as the motivation is there already. But what I realized I'm missing is that excitement of being accountable and making progress because I've agreed to do something outside of my own space.
Helen:So and the reason I wanna talk about it is because it's this idea of community. And when you're accountable to other people, you tend to make more progress on anything. I noticed this even when I simply tell someone I'm gonna do something. And then I'm like, well, I gotta do that because I said it out loud. I said it out loud or if I read it on my list.
Helen:But more so if I say it out loud, when especially now, if I say it on a podcast, you know I'm freaking gonna do it because I'm not gonna let you down. But it's it's so and it also spurred on this other idea. And since I'm doing this exercise class group thing, I'm gonna do some, exercise class group reviews. So I'm gonna do try different group exercise classes in the city and then review them and make myself a little chart of what I liked about 1, what what gives what gives more what one did more than the other better, etcetera, etcetera. I'm gonna make myself a little, a review of the exercise front in New York.
Helen:I think this is gonna be fun. But the other thing and the reason why I even thought of that oh my gosh. I'm really doubling down on everything right now. Is because for my hungry pets client here here's my hungry pet behind me here. But I am gonna do snack reviews because I thought this is a perfect collaboration type of thing to take.
Helen:If you have a product and you're or you're trying to promote something, not a pro it doesn't even have to be a product. If you do a collaboration, we always talk about collaborations. So you see over here, I have some chips. I'm gonna have the pink cat over here review the pink Himalayan sea salt chips over here, which is a new brand of these protein chips. And I thought, perfect.
Helen:A new brand. Maybe they'll repost the content, and I'll do some funny product reviews. So I have lined up a bunch of chips over there. I'm gonna have the pink cat do some do some chip reviews. And that's what made me start to think, oh, maybe for my own content, I'll do exercise class reviews and I'll just kinda dabble in some of the classes in New York City.
Helen:So you see how my brain goes? It goes from one thing to the next to the next and bounces from here to there, but it's all connected. Even though it seems like chaos up here, it is not chaos. It is organized chaos. I like to say I like to think.
Helen:I'm sure Julie would disagree. But anyway, that's what I'm gonna do and I'm just I'm just planning to kind of dive into this idea to see how having a community around you supports the thing and makes you more productive. And so maybe my exercise will be more productive. Maybe my strength will get better because I'm I'm doing it with a group. I don't know.
Helen:I just I think there's something to it. I used to love doing the group workouts when I lived in the suburbs and I belong to the Chatham Club at the time. And they did these competitions where you'd have to do, like, they did call it biggest loser competitions. And we'd be in groups and then you'd have to do the weigh ins and the whole thing. And it was just so much fun because you're working out with friends and you'd have groups and you'd be competing with each other.
Helen:So that was fun and I kinda missed that part of working out. So I'm gonna try and bring it back into my life a little bit and have and figure out which exercise things in New York are more fun than others, which are more serious than others, and kind of get the whole lowdown. So that's my little adventure upcoming. You can follow that along on Instagram. Maybe I'll post some TikToks about it too.
Helen:Sometimes I'm I'm I'm funny on my TikToks are more teaching focused and then just lifestyle focused. And on Instagram, it's more daily. So if you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I do more of like, the daily things that I do are more documented on my Instagram story. So that's the story with that. Just some progress on this room and the studio, how I'm revamping here.
Helen:This furniture is gonna be gone soon. I have lots of things coming. I have a Murphy bed coming in here, so I don't have to have my laptop here on the bed while I'm working. Don't even ask. But I have a desk coming.
Helen:Oh, yes. I will have a desk soon too. So I have been revamping this room, making it into a little studio. That's underway. Some lots of excitement.
Helen:But what's really funny is when I'm cleaning out and I decided I have to getting rid of this furniture, so all the drawers have to be emptied. And I've accumulated things in these drawers, makeup, whatever, when people send me things stuff. And I found today in Julie one of Julie's, I think this is one of her finds. It's a little Marc Jacobs lipstick, and I'm just loving the color. And it just I almost tossed it.
Helen:I almost tossed in the garbage, and then I went, ah, Marc Jacobs. Let me try it. And don't you know I love it? I love a good closet cleanse that finds you things that you forgot you had. Found some sweaters I forgot about.
Helen:Oh my goodness. Okay. So the ramble is over. Let's get into the trends for this week. I know I say I love podcasting, and maybe it's just because it's, like, just ongoing therapy for me to be out here and just saying things about what I'm discovering, what I'm doing in my life, how it relates to social media, how I share the things.
Helen:So I hope you're here for the ride. And if there is something that you would like to me to talk more about or less about, I I can take criticism. Okay? So please feel free to say, stop rambling at the beginning. Get to the point or tell us more about your closet cleanse.
Helen:Tell me what you wanna hear from me. Okay? Because I really, really like feedback. And you can leave it in a comment on Apple Podcast or you can put a message on a YouTube video link, or you can message me, whatever, however you wanna do it. Respond to the newsletter.
Helen:I'm here for all of it. Don't forget to leave a review for this podcast if you do like it because I'm really trying hard to get this to go up in the thread of podcasts. And I don't know how to really do that except for getting reviews on it. So please be kind and leave me a little ting ting or something at the end. Alright.
Helen:Let's talk trends. So the first one is the words come at the words came out of my mouth which is weird because and this is a very sentimental trend because it's something that you may have accomplished, but when you look back, you can't believe that you accomplished it. Crazy. Like, when I think as I was younger that I was just I was gonna be maybe just a nurse or a teacher. I didn't know what the jobs were.
Helen:And now I'm directing commercials and I'm filming social media content for big brands. I never would have expected to be here now doing this when I was taking piano lessons back in the day. So it's just such a great way to highlight some achievement that you've made, whether it's in your business or your personal life. And it just all you need is 3 photos. It's a 3 photo trend.
Helen:Go check the link. Olivia Rodrigo actually did the trend, which it's it's her audio and it's also she actually did the trend, which is really sweet. And the next one is it's a letter, Lisa. This is funny. This is the opposite of sentimental.
Helen:This is hilarious. So it's when you have an when you have a time where someone misled you to think something bad happened. So a lot of times, you know, Julie Julie will text me and she'll be like, hi, mom. Can you talk like it's important or something? And I'm like, I I I'm not a person who thinks the worst immediately.
Helen:But if I do that to her, she more likely thinks the worst immediately, like, what's happening, What's so terrible? And then it's nothing in the end. So, it's a really funny one you can do. You can click on it. I don't wanna describe the trend.
Helen:It's just easier for you to go and look at the newsletter and click on it. But it's a nice fun one for adding some humor into your content. You wanna talk about in general that trends will it's a fact, will get you more views in the because I posted things the last couple of days and it's just like random stuff was this event that I was at and I posted all music video and that other thing that I did and I posted. And then I posted one little trend, which is the next one that I'm gonna tell you about, a little bit of this. And it's like, oh, I wasn't sad.
Helen:I just needed a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I posted this off the cuff. I'm like, let me just post something for fun. And I picked 4 kit photos of 4 videos of my kids. That's what I needed to make me happy.
Helen:And, of course, I got the most views of anything that I've posted in the last few days. So, the other videos, I think, had more value. But this one, because it's a trend, it automatically just got more views. So the fact is the algorithms do push out these trends. So don't sleep on them.
Helen:Just throw one up there. You never know. And it's helpful if you take a trend and you do it and try and make it about your niche. I did not on this one, and I probably could have. I probably should have, and maybe I still will.
Helen:But it's like, I should have done, oh, I'm not sad. I just needed and it's like teaching a TikTok, teaching a TikTok, teaching a TikTok. I should have done it in my niche, but I did it about my children. So, oh, well. But that's my point.
Helen:If you want to try and grow, do these trends, but bring them into your niche so that you're bringing in the eyeballs that you're looking for and you're showing people what you do on the app. Okay. So don't take a page out of my book. Take a page out of the right way to do it. I don't always do it right.
Helen:I just do it because I wanna have fun sometimes. Alright. The other one is you're just here for the zip line. This is another audio from TikTok that made its way over to Instagram reels. You just show off an obsession or an interest you have.
Helen:And you can even grab a friend and be 2 roles in this one, and it's very easy. It's like the person who goes all the way to this big gala event and they're only there for the appetizers or something like that. And I say I always say this about Jonathan. When we go we went all the way to I took him to a Jets game. We had these really great seats.
Helen:We go. He that all he wanted to do was get chicken fingers and fries and go to the, souvenir store. That's it. He didn't even wanna watch the game. I mean, really.
Helen:That would have been the perfect trend. I'm just here for the zip line. He was just here for the French fries all the way to the Jets game. Oh, gosh. You have to laugh.
Helen:Alright. Now, let's talk original content ideas. So, nice easy one is to do a Halloween transition. If you are dressing up in a costume, get yourself a before and after transition. Just find You can scroll to put type in outfit transitions.
Helen:You'll find some audios. I'll try and find one in the meantime and add it into the show notes. But, you're just gonna simply do the reveal of your costume. So, that's a nice easy one. The other is also fun because if you've seen any fall leaves and you've had any foliage shots, do yourself an October recap.
Helen:I did notice that Jenna, my son's wife, my daughter-in-law a k a, has been posting on her Instagram which is called at Hudson River Cottage and it's an Instagram for their Airbnb. And she decided to take on content creation and she I think I've talked about this before. She didn't even know how to make an Instagram reel and I'm her mother-in-law. So she I sat down with her, I taught her how to make a reel and now she has taken it on. And she did one with the fall foliage and it got so many views because she had stunning images and she went to a brewery.
Helen:She tagged the brewery. She invited them as a collaborator which I also explained how to do and as a collaborator and they accepted the collaboration. So her video about the brewery is now on their page and it's gotten triple the views of what she normally gets. So kudos to Jenna. Congrats to them for really taking it on and doing content creation even though it's not her thing.
Helen:She's an accountant by trade and she's learning. So anybody can be a content creator if you just have the desire and the tools and the resources. So that's where I come in for you. I am here to help. And I love this.
Helen:If I could somehow figure out how to make this my job to help you make your content and keep you accountable, that's what I'm gonna do. That's what I wanna do. And it's coming. I promise you. I swear it's coming.
Helen:Alright. So, now, I'm gonna answer the questions because as much as I love chatting at the beginning of this podcast, I love wrapping it up with some answers to questions. The other thing I'm including in the show notes here, if you're a podcast listener, is an extra trend that I just happened upon right before I was about to record. And I looked at the newsletter and I'm like, oh, it's not even in here and it's just a fun trend. So it's a Judge Judy audio.
Helen:I'm gonna link it in the show notes. It is not included in the newsletter, but at least it's at least you have an extra trend that you can tap into. And when we launch the socialized studio, we are gonna be putting extra trends in there. So every week, you're gonna get many more trends. This way, if the ones that we put in the newsletter aren't great for you, you have some other choices.
Helen:So lots lots happening. Alright. Let's get to the first question, which is from Penny. Hello, Penny. I hope you're listening.
Helen:I love that you wrote this very elaborate question here, but I loved your video about creating a second account on TikTok and I have some questions. She she would like a lesson on beginner TikTok lives and how to actually make it work where you can have it on a bigger screen so that you can be live, but you can also be seeing it so you don't have to put your glasses on to see the comments. And I know this is a big one for a lot of people my age. I happen to wear contacts, so I don't need to put reading glasses on. So I'm blessed in that way that my contacts work great for me.
Helen:But a lot of people and as you get over 50 and your eyesight starts the reading starts to go, you can't really read the comments and then you're all, glasses on, glasses off, glasses on, glasses off trying to talk on your live. So it is helpful if you can get yourself a bigger screen. And there's a few ways you can accomplish it. So I'm gonna talk about a few of them here and now. And it really depends on how you wanna approach it.
Helen:K. So the first one is you can mirror your phone up on the television. Alright? So you can if you have an TV in your house, this is a great way to maybe penny for you to do it before getting a second account and doing all that. But you can literally go to your setting your control panel on your phone and you do oh, my gosh.
Helen:What's it called? Hold on. Let me go open my control panel because I'll tell you exactly. It's actually called screen mirroring. And it's an icon.
Helen:I'm gonna hold it up. The icon is that one with the two rectangles holding it right up. So those 2 rectangles you tap that and then it's gonna show you screen mirroring. And here's what I'm seeing. So when I tap that, I see this.
Helen:It says MacBook Pro or Samsung TV. So, that means I can tap that and my phone will now reflect onto my laptop or my television in the other room. And so then you can see everything on the big screen. And that's a great way to do it. You have to remember though, your camera is on your phone.
Helen:So you can't be looking at the TV and have your phone over here because you won't be on the screen. You have to have the phone in front of you, but you've gotta be looking on the at the television or the computer to read the comments. So it'll come out bigger, but you have to be in front of the camera on your phone right here at the top. Okay? So that's a very easy way to do it.
Helen:And that's like a very beginner clear way if you have a device that you can do the screen mirroring. It works like a charm and it's probably my best suggestion for doing it. The other thing you can do is use another device to watch your own live. And, usually, you can do this using your own your main account. Like, you can go to tiktok.com, tap on the live icon on the left hand side on the browser, and then you can scroll through the lives and you could find the live of your own and watch your own live.
Helen:It's a little tricky. I don't know that I'd recommend doing it with from your main account. If anything, I would say that's why you would have a second TikTok account and you would log in with your other account and you would watch your live from your other account. And so I think that's what Penny is trying to do and she's just trying to figure out how to logistically do it so that she doesn't have to put glasses on and be looking on the phone off, glasses on, glasses off in order to read the comments. So hopefully that explains it and I don't even know.
Helen:Maybe I can try and do a tutorial for you, Penny, but it's really so simple as going to your laptop, go to tiktok.com And if you're on an iPad, you go to safari, tiktok.com. If you're on an iPad, you could log in to your second account. And you say you have your iPad and you're viewing, let's say, from penny 2 from your second account, you can view your own live. And you tap in and you can watch the comments bigger. But the first prize is really display your live right up on the big screen.
Helen:And that if that doesn't work, then you have to tackle into the other options. Alright. Hopefully, that answers your question in a long winded way. But I I know what I'm talking about. I just sometimes have a hard time putting into words when I'm not demonstrating it with my stylist.
Helen:Alright. The next question comes from Marcy, which is about resetting her FYP. And she's asking, if she resets her FYP, would that change the audience she is attracting? She's a digital marketer. She's promoting a program and it seems to be pushing her out to South Africa, Nigeria, and etcetera.
Helen:And she's looking for an audience that are from English speaking countries. So she's been trying to block people and do all that. The thing about your FYP is the FYP is your viewing. It's what you are watching. It's not gonna necessarily affect who is finding you.
Helen:So the way that you wanna proceed to get the audience that you're looking for is a few strategies. So you're gonna try number 1, add locations onto your videos if possible. Try and place yourself in the English speaking country that the video is made in so that you're more likely to be seen in that area. It's a really I don't always put locations on my videos because I'm not stressed about where and where the people are who are seeing my videos. I'd rather have the reach beyond my city.
Helen:But if I was trying to really talk about something that was an event in New York and it was happening and I wanted to get eyeballs on that event, I would put the location there. So, the location adding a location to the TikTok is one way. 2nd way is to use hashtags and use hashtags for the area that you're in. And then in that caption, the lower caption is where so much of the information is being grabbed from the algorithm to decide what to do with your content. So put in the caption in, you know, such and such country or such and such English speaking, you know, here are here to teach you something like put words in there that are, you know, hashtag English speaking, hashtag USA, hashtag wherever you are, wherever the country is, Great Britain, hashtag Canada.
Helen:Make sure you're categorizing and it's also helpful to down categorize even more. So, hashtag a city. Even if you don't wanna hashtag a country, hashtag a city. So, that you are getting things into the core of where you wanna be. So, hashtags, lower caption and of course, putting that location on there is really gonna help you.
Helen:Okay. I think that's it for today. I am, I think I'm talked out. The sirens are coming as usual in New York. And I have to get on to another meeting any minute now, actually.
Helen:In 10 minutes, I have to be on another meeting for a a project upcoming for production work. So I'm excited. I always think, well, when is my next shoot? And something always surfaces. Word-of-mouth leads me from one client to another, and I love it.
Helen:So I hope that you're having a wonderful day where wherever you are. Enjoy the week. I will be back on Friday. Lots of good meaty stuff coming, and I cannot emphasize enough how I am how I am so ready for creating something that's more community based and more collective so that we can actually work together more. So I'm excited.
Helen:Can't wait. Gonna meet you soon. Alright. Thank you for being here. Don't forget to leave me a review review.
Helen:I really appreciate it. And especially since my favorite thing right now is podcasting. I really appreciate you listening. Have a great day. Bye.