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Most of us treat creating like a solo sport. Right? Welcome to the Mothership Creator Strategy. This is what I wanna talk about today because I think that a lot of us don't realize how much we can get from bouncing ideas off other creators or even just other people that don't even create. Because the learning that can happen when you are speaking things out loud and somebody says something and it triggers something in your mind can really be game changing to your creative experience, to your outcome on your videos.
Helen:And I think that we miss the mark because a lot of times, and I learned this this past weekend in the Creator Retreat, that most of us don't have friends in our life that are doing what we are doing. If you're listening to this podcast, you're probably in the the niche that I'm in I'm in where my friends a lot... You know, if I go out with people from my high school group or my college friends or whatever, they're not creators. They're not... And I've had this before.
Helen:They have... Haven't been in production. So this isn't the first time I'm experiencing this. Being in a field that is creative or in a field that's potentially... How can I explain this?
Helen:I'm not really explaining it in a good way. But production wasn't a relatable job to me and my... When I would go out with friends. They would think, oh, you have such a cool job. You know?
Helen:I'd hang out with, like, the ladies in the neighborhood when my kids were in school. They... I was like the one with the cool job, but nobody really understood what I did. They didn't really get that I would be in edit rooms late at night looking at shots over and over. A lot of what creators are doing right now, I've been doing my whole career, but I was doing it with small group sessions with other other, by the way, other creators.
Helen:Oh my god. This all ties together. I didn't really think about it until now. I love when something happens that I get a topic in my head, and then on the spot, it's evolving even further. Anyway, because I made some notes.
Helen:I wanna just talk about this. Because of the retreat, this has opened my eyes to some things. Number one, if you don't know, I had a live event last week. I'm sure that most everybody listening already knows that. I had a live event over the weekend.
Helen:I had, 12 creators. We capped it at 12 because I wanted it to be very very personal and have everybody go away with having had time spent with me in a more one on one setting. And it worked out really well. I think I probably could have had a few more. I just kept it very small because I wanted to feel confident, and it was a beta test, so I kept it small.
Helen:But what I will say that happened that I didn't expect, I knew that I'd be able to teach people. I knew that I would be able to impart knowledge, show people how to make videos, direct them in their speaking content. We did the Netflix documentary. That was really fun. Like, I knew I could do those things.
Helen:But what I didn't expect was how the energy changed when people came together and when they were willing to try things that weren't even in their zone. It wasn't the kind of content they normally do. And watching fellow creators in... At their level do it, then everybody wanted to participate. And it was funny because I said at one point, alright, who want...
Helen:We were grouping into, like, who wants to do transitions? Who wants to do speaking content? We were kind of breaking up into groups. And many more people wanted to do the transitions than would even probably use them in their content. And that's what made it really fun because I could see them getting a little fire lit in them to get it right.
Helen:And we had a... It was really funny. William West, I don't know if you're listening to this, William West Hopper, but he did a transition. And because he did the first half in the app and then the second half using his regular camera, and then he put them together, His first one was flipped because you know when you shoot in app, it mirrors everything. So his backdrop was on this side in his first shot and on this side in his second shot.
Helen:Now I could have helped him fix that and flip it before he posted it, but he had already posted it and finished it, so he was very happy with it. But it was interesting to me too because I was like, wow, that's a really good thing I should mention. If someone's doing a lesson and they wanna do a transition and they have to do it and they do start in the app, you have to either finish in the app or you have to mirror flip the one that you record later. So one of them has to be flipped. Things like that come up when you are doing things with other people, because it would not have occurred to me to ever teach that until I saw his.
Helen:And then I was like, bingo. I gotta tell him his backdrop flipped. Right? So it was just really fun. And I will say the best...
Helen:I had a great agenda for the weekend, what we were gonna do and plan, and I can, you know, talk about that when I release the next one. But the best moments weren't necessarily what was on the agenda. It was the side things that we did and the magic that happened when we were kind of off script, if you will. I loved it. So, anyway, seeing someone's face in the room with you when something happens that's, like, amazing and celebrating like, woo hoo.
Helen:I always used to say, Julie and I loved watching our own videos back when we were first making content. We'd be together in the summer at the beach doing content. We we used to love watching our videos over and over. That was like our sport. You know?
Helen:But I don't have that all the time. I watch my own videos. I'm like, okay, this is good to go, and then I post it. But having people looking at each other's videos and being like, yeah. Oh my god.
Helen:It's so good. You know what you should do then? You should... Know, helping. That something like that is the momentum that is contagious.
Helen:And that is why, even even if you're not able to attend a a Creator Retreat, because like not many people are gonna be able to do it, Being able to work with someone nearby is still worth the effort. So a couple of my creators left the party, and they said they were gonna get together because two of them were from from Chicago. They're like, yeah, we're gonna get together and make content. I'm like, perfect. You see?
Helen:Because that will take them... That will level them up when they're working together because they'll have bounce ideas off each other. They'll, like, talk about, oh, how do you think I should do this? I sat with each one of the creators and helped them edit something. I mean, I can think of all the different things that I did with each person and showing them how to edit.
Helen:From teaching lip syncing to Scotty so that he could lip sync slower at two x speed and then it would play back normal. I... Normally or normal. Anyway, I did... I sat down with with, Quantum Queen, Landa, and I showed her how to add transitions to some of her videos where...
Helen:So it would look like a little time warp suction thing because she's a quantum, you know, she's quantum queen, so we need to be able to put her in a vortex. So do... Just being able to teach these little things. The other thing I did even at dinner was funny because we were doing things, like, not just in the classroom, the quote classroom, which is the studio. We're doing things at dinner, and I sat with her and I said, here, sit next to me.
Helen:I'm gonna show you how I would cut this. And I did little shortcuts on this little fashion y thing she did, and everybody was watching over my shoulder, and it was like, oh my god, I would never have thought to do it that way. So there... You're gonna pick up things from watching other people learn things for their content. And that is another thing that came out of this that was just higher level for me.
Helen:I I... Every time I talk about it, I think about something different that happened. Oh, here's another one. And this came... Is turning into a lesson, which I may have posted by the time you hear this.
Helen:But I had the idea when I was teaching this little transition thing to a a group. I was like, you know, you can just shoot the whole thing and then make a split and then hit replace, and then you can replace the first part. So if you ever wanted to do a video where you're in your outfit and you're all finished and you're dressed and you go, shoot, I should have made a transition video, you could still do it. You just shoot the second part. You shoot the whole thing and then just replace the first part.
Helen:And I never even thought to do transitions like that. So I was triggered to teach that to someone because of the way she had missed the opportunity to shoot the first part. And I was like, oh, wait. There's a workaround. And that workaround is probably my new favorite thing in my life now because I...
Helen:A lot of times, I'm moving too fast, and I'm like, I don't wanna set up the camera right now and get dressed and and do the before shot. I just gotta get dressed and I gotta go. Otherwise, I'll be late. So now I know I could just shoot the ending and then replace the beginning. Did I always know this?
Helen:Yes. Did I ever think to do it? No. You hear me? So even though I know the thing, I won't...
Helen:I wouldn't have applied the thing until I was explaining it to someone else so that she could apply it, which was super, super amazing. And I... Boom. Like an explosion in my head. So, of course, I have to make a video about Another thing to address is the different styles of content.
Helen:And this was a big, big wake up call for me that week prior when I was on a production shoot, and I had to interview two very different types of people. And they were professionals, medical professionals, and I had to interview them to get some, authentic content on specific topics. And I'm really, really good at this. I can steer an interview and get them to say the thing. I love it.
Helen:It's kind of like a little sweet thing that I do. But my one person, easy peasy. She was able to just, you know, give me the content as she was comfortable in speaking in her own words. She was... It was amazing.
Helen:Both content creators, by the way. The problem is the second content creator was the way he creates his content is not off the cuff, just think of it and say it. He plans, he thinks, and he... I won't... For lack of a better word, I'll say performs because he comes off very real, but he has his thought in mind, and then he da da da da da in a real way.
Helen:So you don't feel like he's reading a script, and he's not reading a script, but he has his thoughts organized, and then he delivers his thoughts. So he does not work well with just a traditional interview back and forth. And I saw this happening in real time when I was working with him. Amazing, brilliant guy. But I saw it happening, and I thought, wait a second.
Helen:I'm gonna work with... I'm gonna meet him on his terms. I know the way he creates his content because we had talked about it. And he likes to have the the plan. He likes to know what are we trying to get here.
Helen:And then he can deliver it naturally, authentically, in his own words. So I took a whole different tactic, and I said, this is what I'd love to do. This is what I'm looking for. We're trying to get this point as, like, our beginning, our hook of the ad, and we want it in your own words. So he said, good.
Helen:Let me think about it. He would think about it for a minute, and then he would say it the way he wanted to say it. So that's how he worked. So the reason I'm saying this to you in this podcast is that we all have different ways of working that works for us, and it doesn't look the same for two people. So when I think about the people that were on my retreat, there's gonna be different types of learners.
Helen:The person who thinks out loud and talks, the person who writes and plans, the person who sees it before they even say it and they have a visual, the person who improvises, and then the person who really likes to plan and shoot a bunch of shots and then work it out in the edit. This is just an example of a few of the styles of content that I saw happening in real time. Even when I was teaching a lesson, then I would see, oh, there's Carrie, and she's working over there on her edit, and she had something creative going on. And she, by the way, sent me a message. Unfortunately, it's in the phone that I'm using to record this podcast, but where she said, this has been a game changing experience for me because it's changing the way I think about making my content.
Helen:So it wasn't even like a specific lesson that she took away. She took away the whole of the experience of how we all were creating in a different way. And to another thing that you get out of being... Working in a group, that is other people sometimes believe in your idea before you do. You might throw it out there and think, and then all of a sudden the the group, like latches onto your idea and gives it life and gives it legs.
Helen:And that's also fun. So we did one, I'll mention Landa again just because she... I won't care that I talk about her. I know it. Right, Landa?
Helen:Anyway, she wanted to do this thing where she was doing it with Scottie, it was gonna be like a beam me up Scottie thing. And as she set up the shot, I said, know, because she wanted to be like as if they just happened to start talking on this park bench kind of area. And was I was like, well, it's not gonna look realistic if it's just the two of you sitting there, so let's get some extras in there. So we put other people in the scene. So it looked like just the two of them happened to meet each other on this bench.
Helen:That's my point. Like, as we were creating her idea, we made it better together. It was like we have to make it look realistic, you guys just be on your phones ignoring the situation. Know? So we had like talent and act...
Helen:Of course we had the advantage of each other to be our extras, and it was so fun because everybody was getting in each other's videos and transition videos. It was super, super good. But the cool thing is you get proof in real time. You get validation in real time when you're editing and you're showing it to the group. And it's like, my god, that's so amazing.
Helen:So those types of things. I just think that, you know, it doesn't require a room full of 12 people. You could also do it with one person. I have a friend, Alicia, that I get together with all the time. We we have our, like...
Helen:I I will call them monthly meetups. We just like to feed off each other's energy. We always leave feeling better. So sometimes if I'm overwhelmed, I'll be like, Alicia, you want to get together? Because then we can just get outside our office spaces and do and just talk things out.
Helen:And then suddenly we're making like a fun video, and then I'll say, What do you think? Do you like this? And she's like, No, let's do something like that. So one person is enough, you know? Trying to find that person that you can bounce off of and share energy with.
Helen:I'm not going to say take energy from because it's really a sharing of energy. So your challenge for this week is to think of a person that you might like to create content with. And I will even challenge you further. If you have no one in your life that you think would be willing to make content, offer to show someone how you make content because that person will quickly learn from you and then be interested. So you don't have to be a teacher like me that knows all the ins and outs of editing.
Helen:You you guys who are listening to this, you already are content creators, you know enough about content to be able to show someone that's a beginner. Like, here's how you make this video. I challenge you. Do it with... Ask a friend.
Helen:Do it spontaneously if you're getting together with someone for another reason. And be like, you know what would be fun? We should make a video together. I had this idea. And see if they would grab onto it.
Helen:Try to find a content buddy. That is your challenge for this week. How's that sound? Okay. I'm off for a week break.
Helen:I do have a podcast episode lined up already that I recorded prior that I'm gonna share while I'm away, you can listen up next Friday. And I will be back in the studio. So I will see you in the studio. I will not see you next week in the studio. You will see me on the podcast.
Helen:And the following week, I I don't think I land in time to make the meeting, but I have I have guest presenters for the next two meetings. The topic for next week's meeting is online live shopping, doing, like, TikTok live shopping and TikTok shop videos. And then the following week, it's going to be YouTube because I have one of my studio members who built her YouTube channel very quickly to monetization within a within a few months. She did it so... She was very intentional, and the way she, approached it, I think would be so helpful because this is not like a big YouTuber that's gonna, like, spew thoughts at you.
Helen:She's real. Like a real deal, built it from scratch, had an idea of how she wanted to do it, and really dove in. So Betsy's gonna be in that one. So first one is British Hill. Second one is Betsy.
Helen:They will be in the live studio meeting. So if you're not a studio member, you're not gonna hear from them. Sorry. But get in the studio for a week or two, you will. And I will see you next week on the podcast.
Helen:Bye.