Kyle Kaplanis: 0:00

Hey everyone. And welcome back to the BizTok show. You guys. I have my favorite TikTok creator. I love the stuff she's going on. Her name is Giselle Ugarte. She's a founder and CEO of Action Forward where she's empowering influencers and entrepreneurs with the action forward strategy to grow on and offline. She's a master of TikTok and a verified account of over 120,000 followers and killing it over on clubhouse as well with over 20,000 followers already in that space, Giselle welcome to BizTok.

​

Giselle Ugarte: 0:33

Thank you so much for having me and thank you for those sweet words. I really, really appreciate you. And what a fun injection into my day to get to talk about my favorite platform in the universe.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 0:42

Mine too. I love TikTok. Everybody on my show I've been connected to because of our favorite platform. How cool is it to just meet people from all over the world. There are so many aspects to TikTok that people are still confused about. How many misconceptions are there out there about TikTok?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 0:58

Oh, my gosh. For those who have never heard of me, because I'm sure a lot of you have not heard of me. It's funny hearing you say you are my favorite creator on TikTok. I don't have tens of millions or even 1 million followers. And yet you were able to establish that connection with me. I'm curious to know. What that connection is, what is it about me or my content that you love so much? And I'm not asking you that question, because I want you to hear things about me, but I'm curious to know what that is, because what that looks like for you is how a lot of people probably feel when they get on the platform. And all of a sudden they get , that moment with someone and they're like, Oh my God, I want to be best friends with that person. Or, Oh my God, they.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 1:38

I love that you bring that up too, that you don't have millions of followers because sometimes people correlate that , Oh, their favorite is because they're so large. it's because the content you're putting out is just so great. I watch a lot of TikTok gurus and people talking aboutTikTok and strategies like that. I've been in the game for a long time. The content that you put out, I feel like is true. I've seen TikTok. I am behind the scenes. I talked to the executives over on TikTok . I house some of the top TikTok talent. I know what's going on in the space. The information you put out is real and genuine where , there's some people who say that they know what they're talking about. Sometimes the information that I watch, I'm just like, I'm not sure if that's a hundred percent or if they're just making it up as they go. But yours is just genuine and you tell it how it is you're just real and raw,

​

Giselle Ugarte: 2:22

But Kyle you really should start posting it 10:57 PM on a Tuesday, three times a month or a year.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 2:34

That's your time?10:57 PM. You said?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 2:36

I just came up with that random. Don't do that by the way. I'm totally kidding.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 2:41

Okay. Do you think timing actually matters when posting?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 2:44

No, not even a little bit and here's the thing , whenever I make assertions on my platform. So if you're not familiar with my page, I share tips about TikTok, creation, building community and marketing in general. Which in my opinion, marketing is not just about strategy platform or campaign marketing really is how you're showing up every single day. Because if you're not showing up in the same way online as you are offline, you're not going to be able to attract or convert that customer. If how you're showing up online is not how you're showing up offline. Same thing. So whenever I, I say a definitive statement on a platform, or just a statement in general, I will say is this based off of fact, is this based off of observation, but I'll also give the logical reasoning behind it. So when we talk about timing, which that's one of the most common questions that I get about TikTok, does it matter what time it posts? It's really taking a look at. Okay. How does content work on. TikTok. first of all, you upload a piece of content and you never really know how long it's going to take to hit the, for you feed, which by the way is not one universal feed. Every single for you page is quite literally customized for you. And there are some videos of mine that within seconds, minutes, all of a sudden it starts to populate to people who don't already follow me, but I've had a couple of pieces of content that for whatever reason it takes. Hours to get. I've also had my very first viral video actually did not go viral until 10 days after I uploaded it. My second one was 27 days after I uploaded it. What does that mean? It means that's part of the beauty of TikTok, where your content is being shown as long as people are engaging with it. And in no particular order. No, I'm working to feed we'll show you videos that were recently uploaded your for you feed might show you videos that are days, weeks, or even months old. And so for that reason, the answer is no, it does not matter what time you post.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 4:39

I love that so much. You covered a lot of great things there because how many people say that all the time? Oh, my content isn't being pushed out, so I'm going to just. Delete it, , that kills me when people say, I'm just like, don't, Oh my gosh, please don't.

​

Giselle Ugarte: 4:56

Both sides of that, where you have some people who they delete it because it doesn't quote unquote perform well. But then you have the other half where they're like, I don't want to delete my video is because TikTok is going to hurt my account or I'm going to get shadow bad. None of those things. None of those things are true. I've tried it, I've tested it, but here's the thing. I don't want you to delete your videos, not because it'll hurt your account, but because I think it will hurt your mind. And this is also how I set myself up differently in my methodology as a coach is if you get into the habit of deleting videos because they don't quote unquote perform well. Then all of a sudden you fall into a really toxic mindset of needing to constantly hit a certain number or threshold every single time that you post a feeling like your grid needs to be aesthetically perfect in terms of that low numerical value, but also in terms of that opportunity, that is missing out where your video could potentially wake up again. Then all of a sudden you're missing out on views that you otherwise would have had had you left that video up there. And so you shouldn't be thinking about your profile getting views and every time, but rather. When you finally do get those views, whether it's a couple hundred or a thousand or even 10, who cares. People are more than likely going to go to your profile. You want to give them different sides of you, that show who you are and why they would want to follow you. If you're only uploading the clickbait or the tricks. There's not as much of a connection there. If you're having to trick people into following you. That's kind of a problem. If your goal is growth hacking, if you want to get as many followers as possible, that's great. I'm not the coach for you. If anything, I would ask why. Why do you want all those followers? I want to be TikTok famous. Okay. Why, why do you want to be? I want to make a bajillion dollars. Okay. Guess what your follower count is not directly correlated with your bank account. I will have people and I'm sure you do too. Who come to me every single day, who have millions of followers and have not made a dollar, or do not know how to secure an income from their influence or from the platform. That's when we got to pull what I like to call a remix. In terms of what are your intentions on this platform? The platform is your vehicle. It's your vessel. It should not be your end goal, because what if TikTok disappeared tomorrow? What if you decided, you know what, I've been doing videos within this very specific niche for a long time, but I don't want to do it anymore. Exactly. You need to have a connection beyond a category and a platform in order to establish yourself. And that's where longevity is so much more important than virality, because I could count on one hand, how many of those really, really top TikTok creators will have a career beyond this platform and beyond even I would say the next two years.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 7:44

There's so many people out there that are focused on the followers. You're right. I've talked to. Tons of creators who have millions of followers who are not generating or monetizing their accounts. And I've talked to creators who are smaller, but doing it properly, who are monetizing exponentially because they have a plan. Their focus is more on building that sustainability, not trying to do it quickly. You might not know this but my daughter has 2.1 million followers on the app and we were able to, help monetize her exponentially. She's with our agency but we did it the right way. She didn't come into this. Trust me. Wanting to be TikTok famous because I'm telling people this right now as well, because of my experience of living with a creator that has that following. If you're looking to become famous. That is a great question, why? Also remember it comes with huge responsibility, a massive responsibility. So is that something you want? I always tell people that as well, you don't understand that responsibility of, like you said, living on or offline people are watching people expect certain things. What I do love about TikTok is being authentic. You said people are going to come to your page. You want to give them more pieces of you to learn more about you to build that connection, because that's where the true engagement comes from is the audience knowing who you are. Getting to know everything about you. So that's a great question. Is do you believe that people should niche down? Or is it okay to have multiple streams of things they talk about?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 9:14

There's something you touched on that I want to get to first, which is the connection aspect to it. That's part of why I push people to TikTok or short form video in general, because short form vertical video is the way of the future. And why is that important? because you need to figure out how you can connect with your audience. And instantly as they're scrolling, people are scrolling to number they're scrolling because they are numb and you need to make them feel something not in the first 30, 60 seconds in the first frame. 2 seconds max where you're pulling them in. Whether the value that you're providing is a lesson, or maybe it's a laugh or maybe it's shock, but either way you're reminding them of the human connection and feeling. And so that's why I pushed people to short form video and TikTok is because there are a lot of you who may be, you're just starting to get into creating video, but it takes you a while to warm up. This forces you to get into the habit of creating video easily and regularly. And it trains you to understand how you can create that instant connection. Then that will start to feed into everything you're doing, not just the platform itself. So there's that piece, but then you also mentioned the niche piece. I am so anti niche down um, and now don't get me wrong. I do think it's important to have focus. I do think it's important to have strategy, but. As far as niching down, that is the strategy that you would use for a business. For a business you want to make sure that you are having products or services that you are very specific to what your specialty is and that you're staying within the lane that makes sense for you. There are exceptions to this, but I don't want to get too complicated here. As humans you're allowed to have multiple interests where people get lost and caught up in their heads are two things. One, they get so caught up in the niche that they think that they are supposed to be the encyclopedia of whatever it is that they specialize in. Right. They are not following you because you are the encyclopedia of, we'll say. Real estate. If they wanted the encyclopedia of real estate, there are plenty of real estate websites or, pages that they could Google they're following you. And you happen to be a realtor. For example, they're following you because of who you are as a person. The way we talk about real estate, they might not even be in the market to buy real estate. I have clients who they do the most extravagant hair and makeup tutorials. Chances are your followers are never going to replicate that maybe one, maybe three, five, a dozen of those people will do it, or at some point or another, however chances are they're oddly satisfied by what you're putting out. They love watching you do it. They love watching the way you do it. And so when it comes down to niching down, I always say you are your niche, a topic or a category is part of it. A lot of people come to me for, I wouldn't even just say marketing, I would say growth. Growth, it's mindset. It's motivation. It's marketing. It's TikTok. It's platform. It's growth. And from a personal development standpoint as well, but when I'm delivering that I'm using different analogies. I'm telling stories about my life. I'm also bringing examples of how marketing shows up in your every day, not just in your TikTok strategy, in the way that you conduct your relationships, even the romantic ones in the way that you treat your team and the way that you the person, it is truly how you show up every single day. I really truly am under the belief that you are your niche. And part of that is the topic or category. The other part is how you deliver it. It's your perspective. It's your opinion. It's your experience. Experience could be that you're brand new to something. And thank goodness for that. We need experts who are the expert of being brand new to something. It's not about how many transactions you have or how many followers you have. It is again that you are trustworthy, you've become familiar, and then I have a connection to you. I see myself in you. I see someone I love in you or see us, someone who I want to be in you. That's ultimately what gets us to connect. So long story no, I don't think you need to niche down, but I do think that you need to have a focus and one more tip about that focus. The best way you can find that focus is rather than niching down as it pertains to category, niche down as it pertains to audience. That's really not even niching down because it all comes down to basic human understanding. Right. So who are you talking to? If you don't know who you're talking to, if you don't know who you want to serve, then chances are you're going to come off disingenuous or completely scatterbrained. And when I say focused on who you're talking to, that doesn't mean that you're only talking to that group of people. One of my favorite people to follow is After Hours with Amanda, she is talking to the moms of TikTok. Your girl is not a mom of TikTok. I'm a single plant mom and a dog, mom, children. I am not married. . Favorite people to follow, even though I'm not her people, but she's so sure of herself and who she's talking to, that crystal clear idea of who she is. And then I can lean into that conversation because she's familiar. And she reminds me of someone who was in my circle of real friends and now all of a sudden that's where the magic is happening.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 14:23

I think the key focus to bring into that is humanizing. My biggest thing in, and I think that the world is now seeing that is we were so inundated with advertising in our face and we want to bring back the human element and that's what I love about TikTok. Like you said, it's not about niching down. We're not a business here we're human beings and people want to connect to that. And I think that is relatable to not just people's personal brands, but also businesses. The businesses I see that are bringing that connection , that human connection are the ones that are excelling. You see it on TikTok. How many small businesses are blowing up and emerging because they're showing the struggles, they're showing everything about their business, not just the wins, but the struggles like where they're working from. I'm working from this little corner desk in my room and this is where I came from. I think that's what's so powerful about TikTok. I think that's why so many people are coming to it because you can feel the authenticity and you feel a real person again. How many people I've talked to said they love TikTok because it makes him feel creative again,

​

Giselle Ugarte: 15:27

And Nielsen did a report last year where they found that unlike other social media platforms that people get on and it makes them feel worse, TikTok actually makes them feel better. So the slogan "make your day" is true. And you don't hear that very often. Why. I think a lot of it is in the power of the way that TikTok recommends content for you. And you could definitely flip it and say, but TikTok is spying on you, and TikTok is getting all this information, everyone at this point have a smart device. If you have an iPhone that's pretty much down the tubes at this point, but you can either look at it as being, creepy, or you can look at it as being convenient. My favorite TV to watch is TikTok. Because I know that I'm not for you feed. I'm going to be recommended content that I need to be seeing in that moment for right now. It knows you sometimes better than your friends and family, because it sees what you're leaning into. It's not just about who you like and who you follow, but the time that you're spending on a profile or on a video, the time. Okay. You don't have to publicly acknowledge or engage with the video. It will know what you are leaving into. You have total control over that for you feed. So what ends up happening is you get served more content that you're wanting to see and in doing so can probably feel seen as it's recommending creators who are also perhaps like you or going through what it is that you're going through. And that's where that connection happens. That's where that creativity happens with TikTok. I like to make the joke that you probably have more friends who are on Clubhouse , this exclusive invite only audio app than you do on TikTok. So it creates this false sense of anonymity where you feel like you get to start fresh. You're going to a new school. You're moving to a new city. You can be whoever you want to be. You want to dance? You can dance. You don't want to dance. That's okay, too, but it will allow for you to have fewer reservations. Creating content, because you're not worried about everyone in their mom. Who's already put you into the box of what you're supposed to be or afraid of their judgment or what they're going to think of you. Instead you're putting yourself out there just like everybody else's and the entire platform is short form video. It's not just a piece of it, the entire platform with Instagram Reels , just a piece of it with TikTok that's the only way that you can show up.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 17:40

That's what I love about it as well. It's all encompassing, like you just said, it's not a piece. It's the whole entire thing. That's why it's so fun as well. And I agree with you that people let loose a bit. They feel like not everybody's there watching them that they know. So they're able to let loose and how many people I've talked to you that are adults that said, Oh, just a dancing app for kids yet they end up dancing because they are able to have fun. I'm like dancing isn't just for kids. You can have fun with it. They feel like they've been so used to living this professional life and they forgot that they can just let go and people actually connect with that. It can open up so many more doors. Because of TikTok. In my professional life, I've had more doors and opportunities open for me because I get to be me and be real and connect with people. I say, things how it is as well. That's why I was able to relate with you because you watch these videos On YouTube or whatever, and people are so proper and they feel like they have to gain people's trust. And I find that to be fake. Some of your videos. You're like, yeah, you think shadow Banning's real now. Like, just take it. Like it's not, I agree. It is not. Go back through your content. Maybe you didn't get a good hook, like you said, in the first two seconds. Look at your videos that did do well. See what was working for you there. Restrategize or maybe the algorithm just hasn't pushed out that content advocates, TikTok did announce that there's a 90 day window. There's so many factors but it's not shadow bending. I hate when people say that I'm like, look, you're making excuses because you didn't have the success you wanted.

​

Giselle Ugarte: 19:09

A couple of things. If you think that TikTok is just kids in dancing, you have not been on TikTok long enough. When you first sign into TikTok, it is strategically giving you content that is all across the board because it wants to see what you're picking so that it can better understand who you are and recommend the right content. There's this whole theory of shadow, banning that for whatever reason your content is being shadowed, from the view of the public, if you are not following community guidelines. Yeah. That's probably going to be a thing. I had someone messaged me saying I don't get it though, because my content looks just like hers and her content isnt shadow banned.. Yeah. Well, she's breaking the rules too. You're just not going to make that, you know, what do you mean. What I just think is so funny to me is someone will come to me and say, I just, I don't get it. I'm not growing. Okay. So can you honestly tell me that if you were to look at your profile, you were to look at your videos. There is nothing you could do differently. No, I've tried everything. I've tried everything. And then I go to their profile, their videos. I could tell you at least 10 things. 20 things. And that's a problem. If you think you're not doing anything wrong, I would say, maybe once out of a hundred, I will be shocked and go, huh, this is really weird. What went wrong here? But the majority of the time, even my own content. There's always room for improvement. I have more videos that don't go viral than I do that go viral. But you can't compare one video to the other because you have to remember if you do it right. If you get on that for you feed, it's going to be shown to a different group of people who don't know you every single time. And those different people might like you, might not like you, but it's really not about you. It's about that one single piece of content, like 60 seconds that happened to pop into their day. That's just not what they needed to see right now. And in some cases, maybe your video could do a lot better, but TikTok just recommended you to the wrong group. Alright, cool. Keep making content and allow for that video to sit on your page if you love it, because dentation of you.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 21:21

Exactly. Are you a fan of Gary V, like to ask that, okay. I love his strategies the same way it look, it may content that you enjoy keep it up there. If it doesn't perform that well, did you like the content then keep it up. I've talked to many people too saying I've tried everything and you go to their page and then within the first five minutes, give them, an entire list of things that they could improve on. I've been on the app since it merged from musically to TikTok. Not being a creator. I've been a consumer and I've helped my daughter. And trust me even with 2.1 million followers, she's learning every day, how to better your content? what can we do? What can we strategize on? Gary V's really big on it to vanity metrics, forget about it. Just focus on the things you really enjoy. And when my daughter does that I can see it through the screen when she's the most authentic. That's when her views do well. That's when people connect because they can read it. It's crazy how you can read it. Exactly human and connection . Those two things right there are well, I feel so passionate about. How important do you think it is to have a strategy before you start making content on TikTok?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 22:26

I do think it's important. But I don't want you to get caught up in this idea of perfection. I don't want you to confuse strategy with perfection. I also don't want you to confuse strategy and preparation with success because chances are it's possible that you upload a video and it's going to be awesome, but it's more than likely going to be that you post 12 videos and all of them, quote unquote flop, because TikTok still getting to know you, and they're not quite sure where to show your videos. What I do think is important is in any situation, in any platform, you ask yourself the question, why am I here? Why am I putting my time here? What am I hoping to get out of this platform? Because if all you're trying to do is prove that you can get a viral video. Okay. Congratulations. Again, if your goal is I want to launch a business or I want to scale my business, I want to sell more products. I want to network. All of those are great and there's nothing wrong with any of those answers, but they all come with different strategy or, maybe it's that I want to rebrand myself and show up with something that I haven't been on. Either platform to get more confident in front of the camera. Great. Maybe it's that you want to understand? Short form video, amazing. either way establishing a goal. And then from there, you can figure out a strategy. But I do think that part of your strategy needs to be getting on the platform and spending some time listening. Yes, the first week that you're on TikTok, allow for the algorithm to get to know you and allow for yourself to understand what the platform is all about. You shouldn't just walk in and go, Oh, I'm great on video. I'm just going to own the place I'm going to do. Okay. Have a seat. My friend, there is something for you to learn. You can't just recycle content from another place. You need to know how this. Platform works and what this community is like and where your people are. Spend some time listening, spend some time commenting on other people's profiles to start attracting the community that you want to create. Get your profile right where you've got your username, your profile picture, and then step one, fill up your grid. Fill up your grid. I will be more inclined to follow someone when I see that they have multiple videos to come back to versus that person who , quarantine happened and they heard about TikTok and they heard it was really easy to go viral. So they're going to try it out, but then they're gonna get sick of it in a month and they're not going to come back. So we need to build that trust. And part of that social proof is by making your own social proof, by having all of those videos on your profile, even if you don't quite have all of those followers yet to back up for why someone should follow you right on that note, follow at least 100 people. Follow at least 100 people, not a hundred random people, but a hundred people who you actually enjoy follow people who are just like you in your industry are going after what you're going after. But also follow people who are nothing like you, who don't look like you, who don't work like you, who don't live like you so that you can see different perspectives and see what's working on the platform, even if it's completely different from what you do so that you could potentially get inspiration for what it is that you do. There is one thing about Gary B. That drives me bananas. And that is this expectation that you should be posting 10 million times a day, every single day on every single platform. That is just not realistic. People take that really literally where they think that more is more when it actually. More is only more, if more is good, don't confuse the word good with perfect or even quality because we've seen plenty of videos that perform well on someone's phone in very unexpected, impromptu circumstances. However, when you're just putting out the same stuff every single day after day after day after day, and you're not taking a moment to. Breathe. Yeah. You take a look at your content, see where you can improve, see where this is getting you, see how your community was responding. Then that's not going to be effective for you where I would rather that you post once a day, or maybe you're not even used to posting once a month post once a week on a platform that you enjoy, maybe two. Allow for that to be your step one. And then eventually you can start posting more and more and more, but you also need to establish boundaries for yourself. What do you have the mental capacity to do? What do you have the physical capacity to do? Because Eric has got a whole team. Exactly all, probably don't have a team. So what do you have the physical and the emotional capacity to do? Because if we see you burning out, that's not going to be good for you, nor is it going to be good for your audience, but also when you give yourself time to take a break to step back. And Gary B did this as well, where he's had moments where he said, you know what, I'm not going to post for the whole month of December, or I'm not going to post for the holidays all of a sudden, because he does it it gives other people permission to do it. Give yourself permission to take breaks. Give yourself permission to post, maybe it's once a week or five times a week, whatever consistency looks like for you, but established what that consistency is so that you do it. And so that you don't end up going 30, 60, 90 days without posting to a platform. Right. Then build from there, you need to have reasonable expectations, but also room to evolve, improve and grow wherever it is that you're starting.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 27:43

I love that. You hit it on the head. Some people think Gary, V's this one guy, but he has a change team. If Gary V was doing it all himself, then he wouldn't be able to keep up either. Most of us don't have a J team. Maybe we have a small team, but even a small team, it's hard to keep up. And I agree with you. I love that concept where some people feel like they have to come and they have to create, they're pressured. And they will burn out. I allow myself to, if there's a day, I just don't feel like it. And I don't even have drafts. Waiting for me then I'm just like, I'm just not going to post today. And that's okay. I'll get back to it tomorrow because I'm just going to take the day and just chill. I think some people have in their mind, like if I don't come today, people are going to be let down. That's another thing I love about the, for you page. Your video could be kicked out that day, which I have on days, I didn't create a video, got released to new viewership. Your content is not just sitting there for that moment. It can be kicked out multiple times. It almost gives you that relief. Again, we're going back to being human. We're human, we're all human. So it's okay to not be okay every once in a while or not post don't be too caught up on that. There's some people that have multiple different strategies. This is why I say that I really liked your content because there were a lot of gurus that, say you must be doing this many every day but in reality, it's like, look. Put out content that you enjoy have fun with it. Be real. If you're feeling like you need a break, take it, listen to your body, take that break because people will respect it when you come back and you're refreshing you, bam. You re refocus your mind. So I love that. This episode right here is filled with gyms. I would love to know hashtags. That's another thing that people ask about all the time is hashtags. So I'd love to just touch on that. How do they work for the platform? Are they important or not? What's your theories there?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 29:30

We have to take a look at hashtags and think about what is the purpose of hashtag. So hashtag serves three purposes, conversation, discoverability and search. Conversation, meaning you have a brand or a business or a person who picks an obscure hashtag to be able to keep it conversation within a specific community tight, or it allows for participation in that particular conversation, you have discoverability in terms of how your content is being recommended to. Others. So hashtags do matter in that sense, because TikTok has even revealed , that they are paying attention to text that is inside of your captions, as well as inside of the text and your video. And , so they will recommend your content based upon those hashtags based upon who is watching videos that have the same and, or. Similar hashtags. They can't literally, read what a hashtag is, unless they've censored. It's really just, okay, this is the same hashtag as this other video. So we're going to recommend it because this person liked that video. And so we're going to, and they do the same thing with music as well, but that's the topic. Yeah. And then we have search. TikTok used to suck at search. Now they're getting a lot better where type into the search bar on TikTok, you can get videos that are recommended to you and you'll find texts that is either in hashtags or even just the caption itself, or texts in the video. They're getting better at optimizing that search. In that sense, Hashtags can have a purpose, but ultimately again, it's what is the goal here? Are you wanting to get as many people as possible to see your video, or are you wanting to get as many of the right people as possible to see your video? Technically you don't need hashtags at all on take down. your video will hit the, for you feed as long as it is aligned with community guidelines and there it goes. You also, by the way, don't need the, for you feed to go viral. TikTok did not invent virality for rallies happening. Ever. And it's because a piece of content is created and everyone wants to share it with everybody in their mom because they loved it so much. Or they want to keep going back to it. Yeah. For later. Yeah, exactly. So when it comes to TikTok and the four you feed, you don't have to have hashtags on it, but again, yeah. Is your content likely to be enjoyed by the masses or is it more likely to be enjoyed by a very unique group of people? So for example, there are some things that are universal. For example, everyone loves dogs. Everyone loves love. Everyone loves food. Everyone loves feelings, but not everybody is super pumped about science or parenting or dancing for that matter. So when you have a piece of content that is designed for a specific. Topic category or group of people, then it might benefit you to potentially add a hashtag. And I typically use the strategy of if you're going to use hashtags, you should be hashtagging your audience. So maybe it's millennials, moms, teens, teachers, business owners, you should be hashtagging your industry, if that makes sense for a category. Then something that people are searching for. People get a little too cheeky for hashtags, sometimes just trying to get a really crit, like super obscure. And I kind of understand the strategy of that. But when you really think about it, you have a lot of these gurus who are telling you, look for a hashtag that has less than a thousand. So look for it. Hatch has less than a thousand things that people aren't even looking for so that you could maybe pop up at the top of that hashtag. Right. I see what you're saying, but that really doesn't make sense. Especially as it pertains to TikTok general, Perfectly acceptable.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 33:05

There's some great people out there that are teaching TikTok, amazing people. Some of my favorites are, ginger marketer, Johnny blue eyes. There's some great guys out there but then there's some, like you said, that are teaching these weird obscure ways. What does that do? Cool. You're the top of that one, but what kind of audience did you bring? Was it valuable to your brand and your goals? I agree with the method of the virality thing and how TikTok and then meant that, I mean, a great example of that is ocean spray. People resonated with that and just took it offline it went viral everywhere. It wasn't just from TikTok. there are so many aspects to growing your count. And I would rather grow slower, get the right audience, and have that connection and be able to maintain it. Whereas some people are just so focused, but like, I

​

Giselle Ugarte: 33:55

need you to say that again, please. For the people in the back who maybe they were too now for a second.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 34:01

Yeah. I'd rather grow slower. Right and build the right audience and connect with them. Then just have these virality and fake people because it's true. You might get a viral video and gain a ton of followers, but how active are they going to be? A lot of them are just going to be inactive, or they really don't care about the rest of your content. So I'd rather just build the things that I want to build so I can get the right audience and connect with them. When I talking about my audience, because I love what you said in the very beginning of this whole thing, you should know your audience and that's a first step. If you don't, then that's where you need to start. Who are your people? I'd rather know who my people are. When somebody comes to me and is like, I have 10 million, I'm like, who are your people? And they don't know. And I'm like, I have 10,000 and I know. Who they are and what they are and what they enjoy to me that is more powerful and valuable than any of those vanity metrics. That's my goal. And that's what I'm also teaching. And I know that's where you are, because that's why I related so much to you because we have that same mindset, let's worry about the connection here. Let's worry about being human in this way about being real. We've talked about so many fantastic things and I just wanted to say thank you so much for your time. I always love to end my episodes with two questions. One, what is the, content that's found on your, for you page? And to some of your favorite creators, you mentioned one, but I'd love to know some others, so yeah. What's found on your, for you page.

​

Giselle Ugarte: 35:18

Right now on my four U feed. I think I'm still on air fryer TikTok. Now, to be honest, I'm going to go on a short, prior trader Joe's groceries. few months out of every year, I go on what I like to call a cash diet. And I think there is a money guru who has a formal cash diet. And it's not that it's something that I just made up and I happened to call it the same thing where do really take a look at where I'm going. Spending money subscriptions that I don't use anymore. And a big part of that is your girl loves to order in, I loved the order in, I liberated from different awesome restaurants , and I also want to support local businesses, especially right now, and especially in the restaurant industry. While I still am, certainly I'm not giving up entirely where previously I would I am wanting to get more creative with what I have going on in my own house so that I can eat cleaner and have a sound or mind because when I eat better, my mind works better when I gave up sugar and alcohol. Oh my God. I did not know how good I could feel. Oh my God, , it makes all the different and dairy for that matter. Dairy and I had so much energy and even coffee, believe it or not. But I digress. So I'd been looking for a lot of fun recipes. So I made it to air fryer, trader Joe's, TikTok that's what's currently on my. Right, but that could definitely change as it always does. Because you have control over your four, you feed exactly as for creators. Oh my God. So I don't even know where to begin. I will tell you the creators who I talk to the most because I am friends with the people who I follow. Jera.bean one of my favorite creators on the platform, but also a great friend after hours with Amanda, who, is a friend and also someone who I advise a lot when it comes to business. Ong squad is a client and also someone who I admire shes so intelligent and I'm so freaking proud of her. Victoria, James, and craft Lisette Calvey arrow, both of them are just brilliant human beings. I talked to Lisette at least once a day, if not multiple times a day. What I also love is that a lot of these relationships on TikTok have translated offline or have gotten closer because ofplatforms like Clubhouse.. Just me, rod is another one. I love him. So much, he's like a whole meme millennial account that I rely on for laughter. It's hard to just say who are your favorite creators? Because it really depends on the day and like where they're meeting you, where you're at. There are just so many awesome humans who, for some of them, their content is so good. Not because it's transitions and ring lights and production then. And Ryan, I don't even know how to pronounce his last name. I think it's Megan or Madeline. I've recently hired him onto my team to start helping me with being able to double down on vertical video. The way that he edits and the tips that he has when it comes to video, he's just brilliant. That's why I think it's so important though, to spend some time consuming, not just create more time creating then consuming, but with the amount of people like the community. On TikTok is unmatched. It is on that. Where a lot of platforms you are stuck on the first interview, the first date mentality of everything needs to be perfect. Everything needs to be punctuated. Everything needs to be spelled correctly like TikTok. You are best friends status. Like this is the friend who they know where you have your keys. They let themselves in. They don't even ask before they go into your refrigerator and you have the best time doing nothing. That is TikTok.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 38:43

The friends I've made through it as well, like you said, taking things offline and being able to connect further is just so fun. I haven't had that really on any other platform, Facebook, because most of the people I knew in person that's who I was connected with. But everyone I meet on TikTok or people I don't even know , in real life, but I have met a lot of them in real life because you were able to connect or that are in business and have taken things off. I completely agree on that. Last note is consuming is such a valuable part for people who are spreading into the platform, they really do need to consume some of them just think they have this great Instagram strategy and they're going to bring it to the TikTok. It's completely different. Same with your YouTube strategy. It is way different. You have to learn the platform and understand the culture. In that space or people won't resonate because it just seems not within the platform. That's great valuable information there. And lastly, how can people connect with you?

​

Giselle Ugarte: 39:38

You can find me on TikTok. everywhere else. I am Jazelle Yardi. I'm really excited to be introducing what we're going to be calling influencer bootcamp in the next couple of weeks here. I haven't actually analysis anywhere. So this is the debut announcement. I coach influencers and people of influence, and we do one-on-one coaching. We do small groups and what I'm really excited about is putting together an influencer boot camp, where for two or three days. We are going to take a deep dive into figuring out who you are, what you're about, how the platform can serve you, not just how you can serve it, and also how you can establish yourself as a creator, beyond just a platform, whether you want to launch a business or maybe you have big unicorn wild dreams, how can we make your platform, get you to serve in that direction? so I've never done it before. I've done courses in the past, but this is going to be a new part of action forward. And I can't wait to dive deeper with so many creators. So if you're interested in that slide into my DMS and we'll get you on the wait list for that. Okay,

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 40:49

I'm going to slide in to those DMS cause I'm interested in, for sure, nothing like that, that sounds so dope. Anybody who's listening, head over to my podcasts, look in the description. There's a link right to my show notes. And everything will be there, all those links so you can easily find Jazelle, find her Instagram page I'll throw your clubhouse handle in there too. Cause you're awesome over there. You gotta follow GSL. She's given us some serious gems here in this space. She's absolutely crushing it. She's a master of take talk and give her a follow. I'm so grateful for your time. And so grateful that we were able to have this conversation today and be able to connect so thank you. I

​

Giselle Ugarte: 41:30

hate you. And, uh, looking forward to connecting even more.

​

Kyle Kaplanis: 41:34

Bye everyone.