Kyle Kaplanis: 0:00

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the BizTalk show. It is your host, Kyle Kaplanis. I am in the studio today with a dope ass creator. Her name is Hallee Smith. She's got 1.1 million followers, and now she has turned that success into running her own TikTok coaching under Hallee media. Hallee , welcome to BizTalk.

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Hallee Smith: 0:23

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Kyle,

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Kyle Kaplanis: 0:25

Hallee and I were in a Clubhouse room together, which I've had a few guests now. From Clubhouse, because that is also another part platform that is absolutely crushing it. I honestly feel like there's three platforms you should be on is TikTok, Clubhouse and LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn't get enough recognition, but there's tons of business over there for creators as well. Hallee, obviously you didn't grow up to be a TikTok creator. So talk to me about how do you get started to the platform or anything?

 

Hallee Smith: 0:59

For the longest time I had no idea what I wanted to do. I always knew I wanted to do something creative. Since I was in kindergarten, I said I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't really know what that was that I wanted to do. I went to college for marketing and graphic design, so I was doing freelancing and I'd always done video for fun when I was traveling when I was a kid making little movies and stuff like that. So everything creative was always my thing, but I just didn't know what, then flash forward to college. I started freelancing, like I said, and I graduated in December 20 19, still not really knowing what I wanted to do. And then I was like, you know what, I'm making enough freelancing. I'm not going to corporate America. I'm going to see how this goes. Then the pandemic hit. And then I lost my clients and I was like, okay, cool. Now what? Right. So then. I was like, do I try to get a corporate job? Do I try to continue freelancing? Do I pivot? I'd actually downloaded TikTok in October, 2019. Right. And I was posting for fun. I had three or four videos go viral, pretty randomly when I was in Disney World and they were all Disney related TikTok's, One I think hit like 1.5 million. And I was like, Oh my gosh, , what is going on here? Right. I came back to Ohio. I didn't really have any success again. Like I said, it was just for fun. So I was like, okay, I guess it was just a one hit wonder. Then during quarantine, I had another one go viral when I was talking about a story where I got robbed, neither of those really converted followers too much, but I probably had like three to 5,000 at that time. Yeah. So then in April I decided I was going to start my own business, I decided against trying to get a corporate job. And I just jumped right in, started my business. joined a mastermind group and At first, I was doing content creation for entrepreneurs, and small businesses. That was like my target. I got asked to do a collab and I wasn't even really posting on my page. I was just helping a friend out at the time. Then I came up with an idea on my page to play my character, Siri, that I was helping this person out with in their videos. so I dueted it . The reason I did this because I saw an opportunity. I saw all these people were coming and commenting on my videos. Like, are you Siri? I'm like, wait, I'm not even posting. And all these people are converting and interested. That's how I came up with the idea to duet it and actually take the character onto my page. And it blew up. I got like 30,000 followers overnight. It was insane. I was like, what is going on? What do I do? how do I handle this? I had no idea what to do. I just stuck with the Siri character for a while and it just blew my page up. I was getting like a hundred thousand followers a week at one point, which was insane and exciting, but overwhelming at the same time. Eventually I started feeling the Siri characters, cool, but I didn't really choose it. I just fell into it. What do I really want to be doing? At that point, I started trying to switch up my content. I had already been incorporating Starbucks in my Siri of videos. Then I had the idea to. Start playing off my name. I had the series where I was playing off my name. The series blow up where it's a play off of people will never spell my name right. People never say my name right. I don't get offended or anything. People always ask me. I think it's funny to make fun of myself for it. That's my most popular series right now. Working on switching out my content a little, because I'm at that point again, but that's what brought me here. It's been a really fun, exciting, overwhelming journey, but I've learned a lot really fast and I really do love what I'm doing.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 4:53

I'm glad that you bring up that it's overwhelming and things like that because there's a lot of people out there that crave that they want that vitality, but they don't understand the pressure. Even the mental health capacity that comes with it. Even in business. Businesses who have success right away, They sometimes can fail because it's too much and they can't even keep up with it. Right. So it's like that with your personal brand as well. It takes a lot of mental capacity to understand. How do I do this? How do I continue to service my people really fast? Where if you do it slower, you can ask those questions along the way. You can experiment a little bit more without people being weirded out or not understanding your content. My daughter has 2.1 million followers on the app and she, yeah. And she grew really fast as well. That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you.

 

Hallee Smith: 5:50

I'm going to have to check her out.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 5:52

Jaydecandance,, J A Y D E Can Dance. Okay, cool. I got to see it especially like a young teen she's 19 now, but she was 17 when she got on the app. She started growing and to see that success she's like why and what do I do? I'm grateful that I was there to be able to support her. Have you had a lot of support with it along the way?

 

Hallee Smith: 6:16

As I transitioned to feeling more like me. At the beginning, like I was saying, I started to not feel like myself and the content just didn't feel like me I actually have had some mental health struggles throughout it. A certain point it felt very lonely. People are seeing you doing all these things on the internet. So they assume that you have. People to talk to all the time I felt super isolated, super alone. It actually was pretty bad. I started realizing I need to start incorporating this into my life. And so where I wanted to put more of me into it instead of just this character, that didn't feel like me right. And essentially what I do now with the Starbucks, it's still a character. It's an exaggeration of my personality, if that makes sense. I'm naturally a shy person, but Hallee it's EEO. Oh my gosh. I'm like very hyper I'm drinking coffee. I'm running around. I'm going in these places. People like that, people that know me are like, okay, yeah, that's Hallee. And it really resonates more with my life. And. A lot of my friends will watch my content, send me stuff now. I'm getting to a lot better place, but I definitely went through a very dark period with it where people see you on camera and you look fine. So they assume you're fine. But so then it's hard to be like, Oh, I'm not fine, but it's like, Oh, you're doing well. Why would you complain? I stuck with it because I knew that what I was doing, I loved, I just had to figure it out. I had to start focusing on my mental health, as a priority and to then step two be able to pour into the community that I've built in my followers and my fans.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 7:50

The mental health aspect of social media is not talked about enough from the creator's perspective. People just assume, Oh, they're so lucky to have all these followers and they must be doing all these cool things that they love. I'm so jealous.

 

Hallee Smith: 8:04

Cause it looks very flashy.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 8:07

I live with my daughter. She lives in her room. She's depressed. I'm speaking because she talks about it. She's even struggled with eating disorders and talking to psychiatrist and it is isolating. And because when she was making friends, a lot of her friends were fake because they were like, Oh my God, your TikTok famous. We want to be your friend. You know what I mean? Even her sister. Who's in high school, still gets people come up and be like, is Jayde your sister? let's hang out. It comes with a lot of stuff that people don't talk about. They want this virality. And I wish people would talk about it more. So it could be normalized and understand that creators need people to support them as well, just to even check in and yeah. Hey, how are you? How are you actually doing today?

 

Hallee Smith: 8:50

Lucky. A lot of my followers are very sweet and they will actually ask how I'm doing. And you know, sometimes you don't want to just throw it out there. But I will talk about on my lives, my TikTok lives, where I can really connect with them. Sometimes I'll talk about like I had a rough day, they're very supportive. Very nice. But then the other side of that too, is that there are people that are going to, obviously not like you and post mean stuff and comment mean stuff. It's just a part of the game. That was another big adjustment for me. Because I've always been a people pleaser, which. It's not good. I've been getting butter, you know?

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 9:32

It does come with some hate and you kind of get used to it in a way where you know how to brush it off, but I know it still affects people at the end of the day. On my own personal account. I even had, when I was at like 1500 followers, I made. A video about me being in the talent management space. And the funny thing is people assume that if you're in a space like that, you need to have million followers yourself. You know what I mean? If you don't have the followers, you can't be doing what you're doing because, and I'm like, look, I'm the behind the scenes guy. If I had all those million followers and I need a manager for myself, so this guy made, he made like a whole account just hating on me. I only had like $1,500. They were hilarious. He made like raps,

 

Hallee Smith: 10:15

you just got to laugh about it.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 10:17

Keep me full on like a whole rap. I was like, did you put this on Spotify yet? Cause I'm

 

Hallee Smith: 10:24

promoting you.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 10:24

At the end of the day any media is good media. if you look at it like that. Yeah. And that, yeah.

 

Hallee Smith: 10:29

And at the end of the day, if you have people haters, you're doing something right. That's what they say. It's true. The other thing too is you have to look at it as , it's a reflection of how they feel about themselves. Nothing to do with you. If someone's taking the time out of their day to comment something mean they're clearly not in a good head space. I know if I'm really happy and I'm in a great mood and I'm on top of the world, why would you even go out of your way to do that? You have to think of it that way too. That it's nothing about you. It's nothing personal and just have empathy for the people that are putting that out there

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 11:04

they're just looking for some sort of attention. They're probably really sad and lonely. That is sad for those people. And I hope that they do get some help and most likely, they're really young minded too, it's like Cardi B, she's always thanking her haters before anybody.

 

Hallee Smith: 11:18

Role model for that.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 11:22

She's just crazy in that way, but she's always like, I love you haters, but it's true. Cause , they help you loads. Let's talk more about strategy-wise obviously you've been to 1.1 million followers, but I like to know what do you think was not working for you?

 

Hallee Smith: 11:38

What was working for me and wasn't working for me was I was going viral, but I wasn't feeling happy. You got to find that balance and. What I've realized is there's a difference between viral content and good content. They can be the same. There will be a divide. You could make a beautifully produced video with a great storyline, but it just doesn't hit virally. Just taking that into consideration has helped me a lot and just consistency and realizing that the algorithm is evolving. Like what you're saying. I think offline before this algorithm is changing every single day. I tell this to my clients too, there's no definitive answer to anything. You just have to stay consistent and keep posting through it. A couple of my creator friends that I film with a lot, we have this motto post through it. Whatever, having some down views posts through it. If you just keep posting, you're going to have another viral video.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 12:38

Exactly. Exactly.

 

Hallee Smith: 12:40

And you have to, reframe your mindset, especially when you go from every single video going viral to them hanging out in whatever range is proportionate to your following. The mindset that's helped me. There is really appreciating the people that are showing up. And recognizing the fact that it's not just a number because for a while, it kind of felt like that when it was viral video, after viral video, after viral video, it's just like, here's all these people , and I don't even see them. Now it's humbling to really look in the comments and you're responding, you're really responding. You're looking. And you're recognizing who these people are that are showing up that actually support you and are true fans and are going to follow you on whatever platform you go to. That community building aspect is what I tell people. If you're having a downtime and views, just really appreciate that those are people, even if it's. Five people. They're your family. They're supporting you. They're there for you. However many it is. Even if it's one you're still impacting somebody.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 13:42

I love that. Hallee , you touched on so many things it's really true that algorithm is constantly changing and creators are going to see waves. I call them waves that's how I've seen the whole platform. The whole time you get these highs, then you get these lows, you have to be prepared for them, but I love your strategy on when you're on the low. To reconnect with your audience, take that time to comment and really engage back to those that are there. I always tell people this too, just because you have a viral video, doesn't really mean anything. Could mean great things, but it might not mean anything. People just might like that piece of content. Right. It doesn't really resonate with you as a personal brand or even your business as a whole. Sometimes it's those smaller videos that are really more geared to what you're trying to show. Even if it gets smaller views, it's the right key people. At the end of the day, it's almost like that video was more powerful, but we do, we get caught up. We've been like so pushed with these vanity metrics since social media arrived about who has more followers who has more views, right. But we forget to look at them as real people. And I even shared a video on LinkedIn I showed what do views actually look like? I broke it down with 50 views. What does that look like in a room full of people and it's almost wow. Even 50 views, right? If you a room right now at 50 people looking at you talking, you're like, wow.

 

Hallee Smith: 15:02

I saw a TikTok a while ago and it was hilarious and it was like, yeah, my video might've only gotten 36 views, but if 36 people walked in here right now and wanted to talk to me, I would be overwhelmed.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 15:14

It was so funny and it's, but it's true. Right. My daughter, at one point was really hot. No matter what she posted was getting like three, four or 5 million views. But the algorithm changes. Right. And I tell her the exact same thing is your strategy. Post through it because every time she does all of a sudden she'll have another wave and she's like, I'm back. And I'm like, you're always there though. It's just the algorithm. It just wasn't the right timing for those people or whatever I always said you have to be consistent. You have to just show up.

 

Hallee Smith: 15:45

Another way I think of it too, is TikTok and that the algorithm is a tool and you are the value. You are the talent and TikTok can't take that away from you or give it to you. You have the talent or you don't. If you're having success, you have the talent. And just because your views are down, doesn't mean your talent just disappeared. It's just not resonating with the tool. The algorithm right now, YouTube shorts like that algorithms and overdrive. that's a good tool right now, but eventually it's going to be the same way

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 16:17

everything gets saturated. If you are looking for that success, like you have in, you're prepared for it and you're ready for that success. The key really is being early and we've seen this even when the YouTube. People used to Hey, on YouTube, wild, lame. Yeah. Always how it starts. TikTok was a joke. Yeah. My daughter says to this day I joined it as a joke because when she first joined, literally everyone was making fun of it. That app is lame and this is coming from gen Z. You know what I mean? Like teens saying like the app stupid and now. Everyone's wishing they were there when people were calling it stupid. I was even preaching it back then to brand saying like, yo, you better grab your username now and just hold your place. How long ago was that? That was at the end of 2018. I started talking about that because TikTok up officially merged over in August of 2018. I was preaching to people saying, Hey. Look, it's time to think about this. That's when people were really calling me crazy. Now they're listening, you could still organically grow. Yes. It's still very new, but that really fresh ground floor. I have a lot of people saying, damn. I'm like I told you, and then Gary B started talking about it and then

 

Hallee Smith: 17:38

that's when, you know

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 17:39

yeah. And I'm just like, I was talking about at first, like just cause Gary V really? Yeah. Did we built our agency before he started talking and. the guy that I'm co-founder within the agency, he was in the YouTube space in the very beginning as well. So he understood and recognized what is going to work or not. He was like, TikTok is the next one. There's a lot of social media platforms that are merged and fail, merged, and fail. Vine is a great example of that. But he really took a look at TikTok and me and him agreed, this is going to be the platform. And we developed our agency early. On his YouTube side, he was representing Pewdie pie. He had a lot of success in that way. So we wanted to get in early to establish ourselves that we can be able to take on big creators like Michael Lee and help them establish their business. It's crazy though. But for people listening do not get discouraged. This does not mean that you missed,

 

Hallee Smith: 18:39

I will still preach to you that TikTok is where you should be showing up because even. You could still be considered an early adapter right now. Like people still making Instagram accounts for the first time for their business.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 18:54

It's good to say, like, people are still like downloading courses right now on how to use your Instagram. And I'm like save your money and learn how to use TikTok. There's even people who have still made their very first Facebook page right now for their business. They were the first adopters in the social media game, and there's still people learning about Facebook advertising so yes, TikTok really is fresh and early. I can not predict how long. This app will be here for, I'm assuming it's going to be a long time, let's say it does last 10 years. There's going to be people in 10 years that are going to be learning how to use TikTok. You know what I mean? Because we see it with Instagram and Facebook still to this day, even a decade later. Yeah.

 

Hallee Smith: 19:37

I think the thing is that people in the side is what I see in a lot of my clients. And these are the people that I want to reach with. My message is. That it's a learning curve and it's intimidating. People are intimidated by it because it's video and it's new to them if they're not already into video. I have a group coaching program that I'm launching in June, so that I can reach more people with what I'm teaching in my one-on-one coaching. Where I help people get over their fear, get on TikTok and learn, keep them consistent posts through it, teaching them all the things we've talked about here. Be successful, be consistent on there. Build that following, build that credibility while it's still an opportunity.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 20:22

Absolutely. I think there'll even be an opportunity to come because the algorithms seems to be way more fun. Right? Like, so I think it's going to be an opportunity. So like in your coaching program, let's say what would be five key tips that you would talk to a new client about with their TikTok? What would you suggest to them?

 

Hallee Smith: 20:42

the first would be getting your foundation. Learn the platform. Just dive in, start watching stuff. Get sucked in your, for you page a few times. See what other people are doing and get on the part of TikTok. I guess this is part two. Get on one, learn the ins and outs of the platform. Number two. Get onto the side of TikTok. Do you know what I'm talking about? When I say that? There's book talk there's plant talk. There's anything you can really think of talk. And so number two is get into that. See what people are doing. See what's working. See what's not. Number three, find those certain accounts that inspire you and develop your video style or what you're going to go after. And then just fricking start posting, make your first post that's what I say. People that are intimidated by it, just post something to get that first one out of the way over with you. Don't have to worry about it. Maybe it's going to go viral. That's the opportunity. You have a TikTok, but you don't know. The fifth thing would just be testing and tweaking testing and tweaking testing and tweaking. Yeah, both consistently look at what's working, look at what's not working, keep trying new things and something you can do too, if you have a concept for a video, that's really has a lot of potential and you post posted the first time and it doesn't do well. Reframe how you're posting it, do it to a different trend or. Do it with the texts Overland sort of talking about, you know what I mean? Like there's so many different ways to play out even one concept. Yes. Test and tweak is what I tell people to do.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 22:19

It's the, it's the actual truth too, because. I tell people the same thing. If you have content that didn't work and they'll send it to me, , Kyle, what did I do wrong? I'm like, honestly, that's great content. This is where they could mess up if you do not consume enough or understand the naitivity of the platform, the culture of the platform, then you can fail because it looks too much like a different platform. It looks too much like. Gosh,

 

Hallee Smith: 22:43

I think I heard lists on clubhouse. Actually, someone was like, you have to think of it as an etiquette. Every platform has a different etiquette, the same language, but it's a different etiquette.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 22:53

Exactly. So yeah, if your etiquette does not match, it might not work well. I'm like, the story behind this post. Fantastic. Just tweak , this, maybe use this sound with it. And then they're like, Oh my gosh, that did better. Yeah, because it fit natively with the app. You could just scroll and you can see something that just doesn't fit. Right. And you're like, yeah, next, like, and you just skip it. Cause it just feels awkward. Right. Could be content, but you don't even want to give it the time of day because it just doesn't vibe with your scrolling flow. Yeah. If people recognize that right away, then it won't be pushed. It'll flop, You have to figure that out. I had a guest on my show, who's grown a following to 200,000 followers just posting his podcast. It is only clips. Yeah. It's only clips from his podcast. He does them in person. So he can film them a lot better. It looks a lot more natural to the app. And I was like, man how am I going to do this? I'm still working on how. To incorporate it where it looks more fun. But it's crazy how you do have to figure that out. And because I know that I understand that I have to figure out how to make that work versus like people who don't, we'll just. Post it, and I've seen people post like their ads almost like with them, not even any. Yeah. And they're not even ended or anything. It's just like some sort of Canva five second, weird thing. I'm like, no, please take that. I'm like, I'm not about deleting. I think, look, if you like the content you created, just keep it up. I agree on that. I'm like archive that shit, like, please.

 

Hallee Smith: 24:32

Yeah. Sometimes too. I mean, I did, this is like, as I grew, I went back and inventoried my, and I'm like, what stands is my brand? Out of these old posts, what fits my brand and anything that didn't, that was random or maybe something I was completely just testing out. I would private it again. I don't delete, I actually never delete only, ever private then.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 24:53

Always private for one, you don't lose the likes either, which is yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've built those up. You've earned those. So why get rid of them? I do understand, sometimes you do have videos that just don't do well. But right now, with the new algorithm before the algorithm switch, you understood right away what was underperforming? Just didn't do well. Now you don't know because TikTok even stated, their algorithm has changed and. Don't delete your underperforming videos because they can resurface or they just haven't had the opportunity to be seen at that time. You have to give it time. Right? So now I'm telling people, look, if you love that content, you're like, look, I think this is powerful content. And just because it didn't do well, it just probably hasn't had its opportunity yet. So don't get rid of it.

 

Hallee Smith: 25:42

Another thing you can do too, aside from earlier when I was saying, trying to refilm it and reframe it, maybe it's like with a different hook or maybe as I said before, a different way you caption it or you talk instead of captioning, is you just re edit it. So maybe there's a three second pause where maybe people dropped off or maybe you cut off a second at the beginning, but if you're reposting. Don't post the same exact video edit any bit at least.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 26:13

That's a great point. You could go through your analytics, you can look at your watch time. Let's say the average watch time of six seconds. You're like, Oh, what happened at six seconds? And maybe there's something awkward in there, like that didn't fit with the video. So you're like, Oh, let me cut that part out. do you know law by Mike? On the app? Yeah,

 

Hallee Smith: 26:28

actually, yeah. He's one of the ones that I tell people to look at it. Cause I think. He does a really good job of being informative and entertaining at the same

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 26:36

time. He was a guest on my show. Um, yeah, he's an awesome guy. I asked him a lot of questions. He has. A behind the scenes guy that knows a ton. And so I asked him, what is this strategy?

 

Hallee Smith: 26:49

That's what I thought

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 26:51

in my head. Yeah. It's not just him he's basically the face, there's a lot of people behind the scenes that give him like the strategies, but he's fantastic. He's learned along the way, the guy that was on with him on my show, they said the same thing, cut the fat that's their terminology, cut the fat, anything that just doesn't feel right. You have to get rid of it, get to the point, make it fun. That's where people are going to stay as soon as something doesn't feel right. That's when people scroll I do it too. , it could be really good in the beginning. And then I didn't even care to get to the end, even though it's 30 seconds of your life.

 

Hallee Smith: 27:27

This is what I tell people too, is when you're scrolling on TikTok, be intentional with it, think about why you're doing what you're doing, which it's hard because you're on there and you want to just start getting entertained by it, but think about like wait a second. Why did I just scroll? What made me scroll? Did I get bored? Did I just not like it? That the hook not catch me? And you can really see how in your own brain works with content and then translate that into your videos to appeal to people that you're trying to read.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 28:00

There's some people out there that don't have any strategic methods and they can still do well, but it's because they're so good at storytelling. If you don't have that good story telling method, yet you do gotta be strategic and figure out what can I cut out? And learning from videos is the best way to. Another thing you could do too, you feel like your content did it, do that? Well, ask some people for some guidance, don't be afraid to send it to a friend, just say, Hey, , what do you think? Is there something in here that didn't catch your attention? and if they were like, cut that middle part out let's say it's 45 seconds. Yo trim that whole thing, make it 15 and get to the damn point and see how that works.

 

Hallee Smith: 28:38

That's why a lot of my Dunkin and Starbucks videos, they take me for ever to edit because. I go out and I film it. I have someone film for me. Vlog style I have them capture as much as they can. And then I go in and I take these tiny little snippets that make it like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You're engaged the whole time and you're just continually watching and it's only the most entertaining points of what happened, whereas. I could make them into probably 10 minute blogs. I condense it into a minute, which is cutting.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 29:13

My wife does the same thing cause she's built her account to like 160,000 followers now. And, and she does the exact same thing before she wasn't and now she's just like really trimming them up. And I noticed jump cuts. If you are going to talk, I feel like jump cuts do help too. just when I'm watching too. I'm like, Oh, what happened now? Like, okay. Unless

 

Hallee Smith: 29:31

you literally see everything, like

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 29:36

there's some really good accounts that. They tell a story, but you can tell they've edited it down to make it nice and condense, Get to the point. Right. But the jump cuts help keep people's attention. They're like, wait, what? then just watch for the next little snippet, even if it's like a second, you're like, Oh, okay. It keeps you a little bit longer. I love to know the biggest opportunities that come to you, not necessarily like deals or anything, but how has success on TikTok open the doors for you?

 

Hallee Smith: 30:05

Honestly, in so many ways, because getting into the influencer content creator realm is just a whole new game. When I started my business, it was the media company until I pivoted to the coaching and when you're in the creator space, there's so many different things you can do with it. You can try to get on TV shows. You can try to just strictly do brand deals. You can just create content for people or you can post and get paid for the posting. I love opportunity. And I would still say, I don't know exactly what I want to do. I just love being on camera. The best thing that it's brought me is clarity in what I love to do. All these random fun opportunities have been coming. For example, I had a call with a casting director yesterday for a reality TV show, who would have ever thought that. I would have never thought that, but the opportunity came my way and I'm like, Oh, cool. I'm like checking out just to see, because being on is fun. It just really opens the doors to explore, especially if you don't know what you want to do. A lot of creative freedom.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 31:10

I love that you say that it's helped you understand what you want to do and learn more about you which is really cool. I love that you still aren't a hundred percent, you're still learning. It's okay to still learn and evolve and adapt and try different things. And I I've talked to people who were on TikTok in the beginning 2018 and then completely change their content. Into something that they'd never even thought that they would have love to do. And now they're doing all these crazy things that they would never have imagined just because they were able to allow themselves to adapt and try new things. Even in your business, I had a guy on my show. He has developed a product, called the scruffy, he was on shark tank and got denied. It's this cool product. It's a neck shaver. It's looks like a horseshoe. And it's got razors on it. It looks like the moon from saw. That's what gets the attention. That's what drove the attention on TikTok people. Like what the hell is that? How it evolved is he would have never thought is because the people looking in and giving him feedback, which that's, what I love about TikTok too, is you get so much feedback really fast. , a lot of females were like, can I use this for my legs? And he was like, wait a minute. Let me try. So he it, shaving his legs and that video had like 10 million views and he sold out of his product. And now he's creating one that it's called the scruffy 2.0, it's going to be released. And people are raving about it in the comments. I bought one, I can shave my legs in 10 seconds. Um, Honestly. Yeah, but I'm just saying, I was blown away by how his product or business was able to innovate because of the instant feedback that you get on TikTok and being able to adapt and think outside the box like that, now he's going to have way more success than he would have ever had. If he had not been able to adapt and be innovative, and listen to your audience and on Instagram, it's really hard because you barely get any feedback. Even people who have a lot of followers, their comments are I feel like really minimal. Yeah.

 

Hallee Smith: 33:18

Yeah. And aside from the content creation side, I would have never thought or known that I liked teaching because I was never in a spot where I had the expertise to be teaching somebody. But now that I have this skill and all these strategies and this expertise and this knowledge to share, I've found that I love teaching people. It's so fun. When I'm working with my one-on-one clients, I'm alive. It's so much fun. I would so much rather do that than be sitting there editing videos, which is what I thought I wanted to do for awhile.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 33:51

See how cool is that? TikTok is open a whole new world for me as well. It's completely revolutionized my life in so many different ways and I'm so grateful for it. It can be for everybody out there too, that's listening. It could change your life in such a fun way, just by making you be more creative. That's one thing I get from a lot of people. So I wanted to ask you a question, that goes along with as well, in a way it might not. One thing I get from people who finally took the dive, they came to me and said, Kyle, you know what. I'm so grateful because I've never felt more creative in my life. I never knew that I wanted to be creative and it's given me the opportunity to be fun and different. The question I have is what is one misconception about TikTok that is complete bullshit,

 

Hallee Smith: 34:38

that it is going to distract you from your other work and take away all your time. If you let it, that could happen, but it's such an opportunity , if you get a content system going, if anything, the creative outlet part of it, it's going to make you more productive because you're going to be, and you're going to have that creative side of you fulfilled and you're going to have fun with it. It's like a hobby, but it's also helping you with your business.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 35:05

I love that's awesome. Nobody's ever mentioned that one. I really love that. It's really true because still to this day for me, Instagram is so difficult because I'm not really inspired by it. I share some of my videos but like you said, bringing the etiquette of Instagram, I hate like personally, figuring out a photo, is this going to be aesthetic?

 

Hallee Smith: 35:28

It's not one type of person, but it has a stigma of a certain type of person. You know what I mean? Especially since the fitness industry has taken over, which is fine, but That's what people think of when they think of Instagram or TikTok, there's all the different sides of TikTok book talk, plant fitness talk. It's everything.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 35:50

Yeah. I think that's what some people think. Of with TikTok. They're like, Oh, another social media. And I'm like, no, like you said, this is not a, another social media. This is a place where you're going to meet some incredible people. You're going to have fun with it. It's going to grow your personal brand and business. Are you kidding? That's why it has been so successful. I had Giselle Ugarte on my show. I don't know if you know, she's amazing. I love her. She's so cool. She even said that there was a study out. That looked at other socials and they found that TikTok brings happiness where other socials bring depression and social anxieties and all these things where TikTok has proven that it releases serotonin, because why. It's mostly fun and you get to curate your content. So if you do want to see depressing things all day, your, for you page could turn like that, but that's a thing, right? Like it can, if you really want that, go for it, you can find it. Mine is I like animal videos as well. So there's a mix in there like funny videos of animals. And then you see business stuff that you're like, dang, that's a great idea. That's why it's so fun and I'd rather be on there then these other places. That's a cool misconception. I thank you for bringing that up and last lastly how I like to close out? My show is two questions is one. What is found on your, for you page?

 

Hallee Smith: 37:11

Honestly, I actually don't scroll my free page all that. Often. I get a lot of, skits and relatable content, just like the goofy skit, relatable content. Do you know what I mean? Do you know what those type of videos? For a while I was getting prank videos, but I don't really get those anymore. I do get dog videos too. I know my dad gets like hunting videos, sides of TikTok people are on.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 37:38

Yeah. That's why I love asking that because it surprises me. I've had a few people on my show that a little bit straight laced, more professional in a way. But they're still fun because they're on TikTok, right? I feel like you still have to have that fun side. When you ask them that question and they give you something hilarious, you're like, wait, what? you didn't think that was going to be part of their personality. So,

 

Hallee Smith: 37:57

I just thought of some of the other things. I have been getting a lot of mental health ones. Dating ones or like single person ones. those are two that I just thought of that I've been getting a lot.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 38:11

That's hilarious. Are you single? Yeah. Do you see and all that stuff? Yeah.

 

Hallee Smith: 38:16

Apparently I just knows. I don't know.

Kyle Kaplanis: 38:19

I think he does. I'm telling you. It knows. It knows it knows this before we know we're like, Oh, okay. I guess I need to start learning this. Right. My last question is who are some of your favorite creators on the platform?

 

Hallee Smith: 38:35

One of the funniest people who I literally die laughing every time is Brendan LMA IO. Ever seen his content. I was actually laughing at it last night. He goes in public and it's all on the spot stuff and he gets people's reactions. It is hilarious. You could compare it to impractical jokers . But on TikTok.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 38:59

I just had to look them up. I have seen him. He is awesome.

 

Hallee Smith: 39:05

One of my friends I've met on a clubhouse exploring Amanda, I think her username is, she's has a lot of motivational content, so I like hearing her motivational content. And then, like I said, law by Mike, I always see his. I think it's interesting. I like the video style there. I see a lot of the social media stuff too. I like Giselle's. I always see Giselle's stuff. Jules something Juul is, I can't remember who used a name, but really, really useful social media advice. Those are few I there's nothing. I

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 39:35

know exactly. This is, what's interesting about TikTok is we do have our favorites in our mind, but sometimes we don't even remember their username. We remember their content or their face weirdly enough, because you're just know, those videos. Those are great ones I have seen Brendan before he is hilarious. I love to give people inspiration to check out other content creators from these shows to be able to see because the app is so big. I had GSL on which her podcast aired this week there was three creators that she mentioned that I've never, ever heard of, took a look at their content. And they're amazing so I got the opportunity to find them through people who inspire me. Everybody on my show has inspired me in a way. So I want to learn. What's inspiring them to check it out and find new creators that are fantastic. Thank you so much for that. People that are getting to this point. They obviously want to connect with you. What is the best way to follow you? Where can they find you on social media? And if they wanted to reach out and connect with you with your coaching, how can they do that?

 

Hallee Smith: 40:37

The best way right now I have a business Instagram account. I've been getting a lot of my leads through clubhouse, which is what I'm primarily using it for. If people go to my business, Instagram, Halleemedia send me a DM or go to my link. You said, you're going to provide my link. My link will have everything on it. So if you check out that link, it'll have my. Personal Instagram, my business, Instagram, I TikTok my YouTube, my Snapchat, my offers right now, my merge, everything is in that one spot and it's very, I've made it very accessible. I didn't want it to be overwhelming cause there's a lot. It's very well organized and you can reach me through there. you can also shoot me an email if you go to that link too. Definitely reach out. Thank you so much for having me to this. This was so

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 41:25

fun. Thank you so much. And it's really, it's just fun talking about things and learning about new people I love clubhouse as well, but these are cool because you get to see a little bit of a face and still have a conversation. Not

 

Hallee Smith: 41:37

just the like static profile.

 

Kyle Kaplanis: 41:39

Yeah. Anybody who's listening right now go follow Hallee. Definitely check her out on TikTok because she's doing killer things. Hallee_Smith in the description of this podcast, you will find the show notes, which will. Be directed over there and you can find all the links to follow Holly and be able to reach out to where thank you so much. I appreciate your time today and everybody that's listening. Have a great day.