Jeffrey Dwoskin on Attribution, Automation and Multi-Platform Domination

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But there were a few things when we were at the agency that I saw which was the ability to be able to manage comments effectively and at scale DM automation, driving links into the DMs tracking fan generated content or user generated content as it used to be called and. Or I guess it still is called. It just depends who makes it but like and you know, and post level giveaways and so there was all these things that we were doing.

Step into the world of success with your brand Amplified, the ultimate podcast designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host, Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success. So I have Jeff Dwoskin on the show today. Jeff. Jeff, I'm so excited to have you on your brand Amplified. You're a tech entrepreneur, a professional standup comedian. You have Roundup Stampede Social, which is an Instagram traffic solution for creators. You have a podcast.

Wow.

What don't you do?

I know. How did I have time to be on this podcast with you?

I know, right?

I'm so busy. I'm so busy. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. We finally, finally made it happen.

I know, me too. Me too. I've been looking forward to it. So talk to us a little bit about the move into all of these spaces and places from, you know, going from marketing and biz dev, working at Little Caesars for consumer engagement to moving fully into being a creator yourself with your podcast and then having a creative agency.

Yeah, that's a lot. One thing kind of always built off the other things. I always see most of the things I do as an extension of each other. And it's. I'm just. I have this habit, good or bad, that if I like, if I see something and I enjoy it and I want to do it, I kind of just do it. And I was really interested in standup comedy, so I. I did stand up comedy. Did it for like 20 years. I don't do it as much as I used to, just because it slowed down a little bit after Covid and I never really jumped back in. Five years ago, it was like my friend was on a podcast. I'm like, or doing a podcast. And I was a guest. I'm like, I want to do a podcast. I want, you know. You know, I was really into Insta Twitter at one point, you know, so we started this thing called Hashtag Roundup. We built an app that evolves into our current company, Stampede Social, where we help creators and influencers and agencies kind of take advantage of Instagram and help drive attribution and automation on social media, then track it all. So it's. It all kind of has a little bit of branches into the other thing. And then I'm like, oh, you know, or yeah, lately I'm into cloud code and coding, but now I'm doing it for my. It started with my podcast website and I just redid the entire front end of Stampede Social and so kind of reinvented that, you know, so always trying to kind of stay ahead, but also always do what I really love to do. I'm just follow my passion and I just kind of do it.

Well, it's worked for you, clearly, because you've been able to parlay the things that you're really interested and passionate about and that you have a skill set in. Into getting paid for it, which we all want to do. Right. Into being able to, you know, keep your brand identity, but also reinvent yourself.

Yeah, I mean, it's fun, it's exciting, you know, and it helps kind of push the boundaries of things, you know, I was very shy and, you know, doing stand up comedy was sort of a stretch, but I think stand up comedy then helped me with the podcast. You know, to be able to talk to people and engage with them. That helped me in business. I was always joke like, you know, like, Jeff, you don't have any problem talking to the CEO. I'm like, you never did open mic night, you know, know, in front of 50 drunk people at midnight, you know, on a weekday, you know, like, there's nothing worse than that. Talking to a CEO. That's easy. There's no level of rejection he can give me that I haven't experienced, you know. You know, so it's, you know, so all the kind of things kind of work, work together in one way or another, or at least I make them do and do that.

Well, I think one thing that I see is that you were at the, you know, the early days of the Internet as we know it. Website development, selling people a solution to a problem that they didn't know that they had yet, right? What's the Internet? What's this thing? Why do I need a website? And being really successful at that. So I think that I see it's a little through line through what you've done with everything else, right? You were fighting solution that people had to wake up to. Oh, I need this. You had that foresight, if you will.

That's. It's an interesting story. You know, I was a friend of mine was doing something with the Internet. Try and picture this, knowing the world that we live in now. You're in the late 90s, and to find a website, you would literally buy a book, like a yellow pages type book, and that listed all the websites in it, right? So it would go out of date as quick as you could get it. But that was sort of like the early evolution of this. And we were going to companies like Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Michigan and things like that. And like, hey, website, what's that? Well, it's kind of like a newsletter online, you know, I mean, like, it's like, you know, it's like trying to explain to them, because this is in the days where it was a gray background, it was very, very basic. And like you said, it's like nobody knew what it was. And I remember going to Barnes and Noble when they had locations and there were two books on HTML. I'm a graphic designer. That's one of my early things. And like. And so I grabbed the book and I learned how to make web pages. And I happen to have this thing called CorelDRAW that could make diffs or gifs and that's what you needed to make a webpage. So I, I knew my friend was into the Internet, so I created this thing and I'm like, hey, we can, I can do web pages, you know. And so that's sort of how it started. We just, we ended up getting some local press and then company in California took interest in us and we ended up selling the company to them because everybody they were calling, they're like, oh, we work with online marketing company. That was the Name of our company, very clever, but on the nose. But back then, you kind of had to be. Nowadays you have a crazy name for a company or something. Back then I was like, online marketing company. What do you do? Online marketing? You know, so it's like. But yeah, so that's sort of where it all. It all kind of started, so.

And at the same time, you were also pursuing standup comedy, and you'd gone from shy kid to successful tech entrepreneur who also decided you needed a hobby. Well, it's became more than a hobby, obviously, but.

Well, I kind of say how, like, all these things kind of tie together. One of the companies that we did the website for was a company was Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle, a local comedy club. And so when we were doing that, I realized, oh, they have. They have comedy classes there. And I was always quiet, but I was always the funny guy. Like, I could be sitting. We'd be sitting there and I'd be making a comment or something like that, and. Or I could get up and I could. I could make people laugh. I knew I was funny, right? Or had the potato. And so when we did this, everyone's like, you should do that. You should take that class. And I'm like, yeah, I should. But the only reason I knew about it is because we did their website otherwise. And so I did that. And then, yeah, for 20 years, it became quite an obsession. It was. I only slowed down because of when Covid. And then all of a sudden, there was like 500, you know, 500 comedians in Michigan when Covid ended. You know, so I was like. I was just. It was hard to kind of just, you know, fight for those spots. And so I kind of ended up. The podcast was starting and to pick up a little bit, and it was like, there's only so much time, you know, to do stuff. And so I ended up kind of shifting. It's like, you know, the podcast is my thing. I don't need to, you know, to go leave with the fam for weekends at a time to do stand up. I can do. I can do my own thing and have. Enjoy it a little bit more. And that was the podcast. So.

Yeah, well, on the podcast, Classic Conversations, talk to us about that. And how does it fit into your business?

It does not in any way fit into my business. I mean, you can see my background. I have photos, eight by tens. And so, like, one of my kind of things is I've always loved going to comic Cons and, like, I love meeting celebrities and getting their 8 by 10, you know, the signatures or a photo with them and stuff like that. And so when I started the podcast, there was somebody that I knew that introduced me to a couple folks early on that were in the celebrity genre. And so all of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute. These people will talk to me. And, like. And I was like, okay, okay. And so I was like, this is amazing. And the timing was kind of good in the sense that, well, not for some, but, like, Covid hit. So everyone's home, and, I mean, they're not working. Nobody's working, right. So. So I'm reaching out, and so. Oh, yeah, of course. I'll tell you. I mean, they were plenty of people more than eager to have conversations. And so that just started, and then, like, you know, by the time you've done a hundred, what I realized is when you have a list, people react to the list as well. So it just. You know, now I have hundreds, you know, like, you know, people will come on the show, and they'll be like, oh, I. I know many of your past guests. You know what I mean? And so it's like. But it's an instant kind of, kind of bond. And so it was like. It was just so amazing to me. And I was like, it's kind of cool, too, because sometimes those people that are on my podcast will come to the local Comic Con, and I get to meet him in person, which is kind of cool. And so, yeah, it's one of those things where they talk about pod fade. I mean, I haven't. Pod faded. You know, that's when people quit after seven episodes or so. But, like, for those listening. But, like, this was something that I just love doing. I just. I love doing it. And, like, you know, I. For some reason, I love editing. Like, I don't. I do the whole thing myself. Like, everything. I get my guests. I mean, I. I wish I had help, but part of it is, to me, it's all part of this whole creative thing. And so it's like, you know, I just. I really, really enjoy it. And it's just awesome to be able. You know, I just talked to the crew of the Love Boat. That was, like, a big deal for me. It's like. And people started reaching out to me, and, like, I. Hey, can we. Would you like to have this person on your podcast? And they're not. They're not little. You know, they're people. I mean, people know. And it's like, yeah, this is awesome. Yeah. So, yeah, so it's pretty cool.

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Yeah, I mean, I probably should start a business podcast. I mean, I've got all the equipment and all this stuff. I just, I don't know why I haven't. I just, I look at podcasting as sort of like kind of my, my hobby, the thing that I, I really enjoy. You know, people go golfing, they do, they like the podcast. Say I've, I love, you know, say I talked to the bionic woman. You know, I mean, it was like, I mean, my kids don't know anybody. It was on my podcast. But like, you know, depending on people always say like, who's the most famous person you've talked to? And I'm like, well, it depends on you because, you know, it's like you may not have any, may not know even half the people on. And then there's some that you do or a show that you watch because you watched it with your parents or something like that. I mean, just to give context, like, I say that my guests were extremely famous when they were famous. Right. So, you know, some of them are from the 60s, the 70s, so if I'm lucky, 90s. But it's all good, you know, but that's what I like. These are the things I grew up on. So it's really cool to me. I'll tell you what the really coolest thing is. It's a little. Sounds a little morbid, but I think you'll understand what I'm saying is when my guests die because they're older, but my podcast gets referenced in their. In their bits, in thing, and it's like, well, hey, when he was on, you know, they'll say the Jeff Dwaskin show or something like that. To me, I was like, oh, that's really cool that I captured a conversation that, you know, that he'll be remembered for and that other people are going to now be able to experience as they remember that person, too. And so it's like, I know it sounds a little morbid, you know, but it's kind of cool, you know, it kind of shows that, like, what we're doing is there forever, and it's an imprint, and it can have lasting, lasting value, you know? So to me, that was kind of cool.

Yeah. And let's talk about lasting value when it comes to social, because we know social can be fleeting. Let's start with your story with Roundup, because that was, again, something that you were interested in, and that was the precursor, right, to Stampede Social and figuring out how to solve problems for creators.

So, hashtag Roundup. I was really big on Twitter because of the comedy, and someone's like, oh, you should. I used to, like, be, like, the funny guy on Facebook, and then someone's like, you really should go on Twitter. And so. So I was like, because that's where you'll get noticed. And it's interesting because I had a run where every publication you can think of published my tweets. Nowadays, it's people. It's TikToks, but, like, not my TikToks, but. But in the day, in my day, if the press was doing something or people were doing a newscast, they pulled from Twitter, they read people's tweets. I mean, there isn't a magazine or news thing that you can say that I probably wasn't featured in at one point. Like, it was, like, crazy, like, because, you know, I was just. My humor translated well, and I kind of mastered the art of Twitter in terms of. Of that. And so one day when I was tweeting, I noticed this thing, these things called hashtag games. Jimmy Fallon does them on the Tonight show occasionally, or at least he used to, you know, like, hashtag marriage in four words or something like that, or hashtag change a letter of a song or Something, whatever it is, wordplay, games. And so I kind of got obsessed with them and I realized it was a community on there. And so I was like, I started to like become part of that community. Then we actually built up a community called Hashtag Roundup. And we had like over, I think 30,000 between the two accounts we had, we had close to 70,000 people. And my background in the web, I was a web developer. That was one of my early things. And then. But the problem was when apps started being a thing, like, you know, like the onset of apps in the app store, it would be like, well, Jeff, you know, I'm looking for jobs. And like, well, have you built an app? I'm like, no, I haven't built an app. But I mean, I was part of the Daimler One Chrysler launch. We've done million dollar web applications, but have you done an app? And I'm like, no, I have not. And so here's another example in my career. So I'm like, all right, I paid to build an app and like, I built an app for Hashtag Roundup and it was a whole community based thing and it basically sent notifications to your phone when a game would start. What I would get frustrated with is I wasn't always on Twitter, so I would miss a lot of these games. And I really enjoyed playing them. They were very. It was a good creative outlet. And so I. We basically built a Pavlovian system into this game. We built a whole thing where we created this whole structure. We created, we got hosts and every 90 minutes or so there was a new game that would come and you'd get a beep on your phone and you'd play. And we built an Android app and an iOS app. And that's how I parlayed my job at Little Caesars, because they were on the. In the early stages of their app. And so I was like, oh, I have app experience. So I had to do that. And so I ended up going there and bringing them into the world of E commerce. And then from there, while I was there, they recognized some of my background in social media. And I actually moved. First IT guy ever to move from IT to marketing. And so I ended up being there and like I was in charge of the Super Bowl. We did, you know, like the war room at the super bowl and we had our first ad at the super bowl and doing influencer campaigns with Jason Dr. Low and you know, David do and a bunch of other huge names. And. And so it was like, it was really cool. So I started to see some of the other sides of influencers and working with influencers and doing influencer campaigns and specifically like on Instagram, some of the shortfalls where you can put things in motion, but it was really difficult to manage or measure things on Instagram. So some of the technology that we had built for Hashtag Roundup, and I can't go into it all, but. Right. I mean, I could, but you don't want to hear it. But like, we built like a lot of technology to run that community and the app and just crazy amounts. And so I was like. So we ended up adapting it to Instagram and then Facebook and then kind of expanding it to help kind of drive sales or downloads or, you know, any type of monetization ROI on Instagram through automation and then building data layers under that and being able to kind of do all the things that I saw that with the agency that I was working with that you could just. You. Once it was loose, you couldn't. There was really no good ways, you know, and beyond vanity metric measurement, which really wasn't helpful. So it was like, we tried to kind of solve for a lot of that. So you see how like, one thing kind of led into the other. So people are like, how old's your company? I was like, it's a hard answer because it evolved so long that what it is now is technically, you know, I mean, you know, but like, you know, but in reality, you know, it's through the hard pivots, we kind of made some real big changes. So. And then, you know, the latest is just learning code, you know, like, you know, kind of just AI is like the latest thing. You gotta have to have a kind of a grasp on. So I just posted today, I was like, because the problem with AI and I'm not talking about AI, like, give me ideas for a blog, like, not like that and like Claude code. Like literally application building and the problem with applications and the dream of, hey, I just typed in, you know, when you hear like the vive code, hey, I just said find me a bathroom. And then it made me find me the bathroom app or whatever. You know what I mean? When you're trying traveling and it's like, okay, but now d. To do the second version of that app. Anyone can, right? It's like, it's. It was the iteration thing that you had to like, kind of understand how to build the foundation of these things and. And build it. So I. The first thing I did was I redid my. My website. I like, I For my podcast actually is because I had to do redo the Stampede Social front end, but I needed to practice on something so I didn't. I hated my WordPress theme. So like, I'm like, hey, AI, can I make my own WordPress? And like the theme? And they're like, yeah, you can do that. That's just a file, dude. And I'm like, oh, okay, we're doing this. And so I just, I looked at every other website out there and they took everything that I love from all of them and my own ideas and just said, here, let's do this. And I made my own theme and I did my own thing and like, really cool stuff. And like, I mean to me, most of it when you look at it, it's like, okay, it's like. But you don't understand it. It's doing all these things and it's like. And then I redid the entire front end of our. Our website or not our website, our actual application that we're about to roll out. And so it's been kind of amazing what you can do, you know, with the power that's in the hands of, of us now with all these things. So I'm looking forward to the next evolution of that because I think it's going to be really, really cool.

Yeah. And you're making a great case for. You have the practical experience, knowledge, the history of digital, but then you're able to see what AI can do to improve. And we know, I mean, AI touches so much content on whether it's just the regular old Internet or social media these days. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about how you use Stampede Social to make a difference for creators. What were the things that you saw that were missing or that were out there, but that weren't quite as, as good as they could be and weren't serving that audience?

Yeah, absolutely. So there were a few things when we were at the agency that I saw which was the ability to be able to manage comments effectively and at scale. DM automation driving links into the DMs tracking fan generated content, or user generated content as it used to be called and. Or I guess it still is called. It just depends who makes it but like and you know, and post level giveaways. And so there was all these things that we were doing. I know GM automation is a little more prevalent now, but I've been kind of preaching it for a couple of years and so. But it was kind of putting that all together. But then also Kind of layering in one of my previous companies with a company called 4C. So, you know, it was all data, all data driven and so creating more data and understanding and visualization of what's happening beyond just the feature of we sent a link or we drew a sweepstakes. And so. But the idea was to make it as simple and easy as possible for the, either the agencies or the brands to do this. But it's more also not even just driving the end results, which I think, I think the industry is kind of catching up to what our early philosophy was, which was it's not about the vanity metrics and just the fact that DMs are being sent, it's about what is the actual end results and can you track that. And we've always had attribution built in, but suddenly everyone's like, attribution, you know, I mean, so they always talked about it, but it was like, but the fact that we can actually do it and drive attribution down to the post level. So you can actually, you know, if you have a hundred influencers doing a campaign with you and you can actually see. All right, well, it was actually only these 20 posts and these 20 influencers that actually move the needle for you, you know, that can help you move forward and help you allocate future spend on campaigns, but also understand how what your real return was on the campaign that you just did. The idea is that to make it real easy with being able to manage people across an entire, you know, all the people that you're doing. The problem with having 100 creators or 10 creators is it's 10 creators that have 10 sets of data in 10 different places that you have to beg for. So we built our system so that we wanted to solve for the fact that agencies have that difficulty and spend way too many hours running around trying to ascertain data. Well, if you standardize on the same system, get the same tools in place, all the data can aggregate now down into a main dashboard and you still have that so that you remove self reporting from the thing which helps the creator as well. Visibility is, you know, something I think everyone is coming around and understanding is necessary to be able to see. So the fact that you can see someone's post stats is a positive. And so, you know, and then be able to actually kind of cross compare across different platforms. So the exciting thing for me, for AI, is that we were able to rebuild the front end and we were able to in this new iteration that we're building, which is really Exciting is everything that, all the potential that has always been there with what you can get and the data you can download. But you had to do stuff, you know, I had to download it and I had to do stuff, you know, do something. Now it's all there. We were able to create the front end and we were able to visualize all the data for you, create these robust reports. You know, it's all based on the same stuff, but it's just, you know, make all the features much easier to find and use and, and so, you know, it's always about iterating and making things better. So. But what I realized is I didn't realize like how much data that we had and that we were collecting and, and how much potential to understand stuff was one of the things that we, you know, you, you people comment on things and we collect all the comments that come in and you know, so we can really help somebody understand. Oh, Anika's commented 50 times and asked for 10 dms and you can click when you show up in the comments. As you know, you comment on a new post, there's a little badge there that lets you know you're a super fan. I can click on it and I can see everything before I respond to you. I can see any other time you've ever commented on something before. And so it's just putting that kind of in the power in the hands of the creators and the influencers gets them to know who their fans are much better and who's the more valuable people that are more likely to turn into a sale. And then from, you know, a brand and agency point of view, it just becomes also extremely valuable to know, especially if you have, if you're working across brands. 30% of the same people are engaging with me in this brand and this brand. And so the idea is making life easier for everyone. That's why I think the beautiful part of it is it helps the end user and it helps the creator themselves, day or night.

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Points Cap apply who is a typical client for Stampede Social?

Generally, it's someone who's probably making a career or at the beginning of a career on social media, if you're a creator who has some good engagement already, right? So San Be Sosa doesn't make your engagement. It's like throwing kerosene on the fire and it amplifies what you have to help get people that final mile, that last mile into the DMs a link in their hands. You know, the idea is don't send, you know, we're avoiding sending them to Lincoln Bio where they have to hunt and leave and find refind where the information that they had already found somewhere else. So if, if those folks have something where they're doing it, you know, from a podcast point of view, if you're a podcaster, I always say there's like two potential superpowers you can have because one, you could have social, but you might have a strong podcast, right? Where people do engage with you from the podcast. And so the same technology can be used. You set up on Instagram, you set in your stampede, you set up a campaign better help or something, right? And from your podcast you can drive people instead of giving them a URL that they're not going to remember, right? That's very specific to you. You just say, hey, go to my DM on Facebook or Instagram and just DM me better help. And then that sends them your specific URL and then you know who was listening and who converted. So now you know as a podcaster, you know who's engaging with you because now they're in your DMs. And that thing that was invisible before, which is how many people are really clicking on or going to my links of all these host red ads I'm doing, you now have full visibility of it and you could do that on social too. But if you have a little social, but you have, you know, 10,000 downloads and you can drive action from that, then you just drive them to your social, which is an extra benefit anyway. Likely they already Know your social. And if they don't, you're always trying to. You're probably ending your podcast with go to Follow me on social media. You know what I mean? So it's kind of a win, win there. And so, you know, there's. There's all these different ways that creators can. Can engage that way. So. So, yeah.

Oh, I, I appreciate that. And I love the example that you just gave because it really shows whether you're a podcast or a creator, whatever your bigger avenues are, you can still drive traffic to your Insta, your Facebook, to other places where there are still a lot of active participants who are probably looking for your kind of content. And so you're able to make that better connection between your current audience and potential new audience members as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, kind of monitoring all the different socials at once and kind of see, is TikTok popping more than or is YouTube popping? You know, that kind of thing as well? So those are other ways that we help creators is they can pull in all those post stats and then run scorecards across all their platforms, see how stuff is doing. It's exciting. I mean, I enjoy it because a creator at heart, I'm not, you know, and so enjoy making this and doing things and helping people kind of, you know. Yeah, it's nice. It's nice.

So, and that's. I mean, we're seeing people want more personalization, even when it's that connection through social media. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about where you see Stampede Social going next, because you did also mention that you're solving an issue, but now other people, other companies are starting to go wake up to that same idea and perhaps try to compete with you on different levels. So where do you see the industry going? Where do you see Stampede Social going in your quest to help creators?

Yeah, absolutely. We're always, you know, kind of looking. We've been early pivoting for a while, you know, I mean, so the fact that we've expanded beyond just DM automation to help with a variety of different things. We've created connections to Etsy, YouTube, TikTok and Threads, you know, so you can really see your full thing, which normally you would have to spend a lot of money on for very expensive programs to really kind of tap into that. So, you know, being able to give your social power and leverage your social power is something that we're really kind of focused on. And then as we kind of move forward, we're constantly putting in more Data that you can kind of understand your whole thing because ultimately data is, is king. But the problem with data, and one of the things we're trying to do really well is make it so that the data is just there. So meaning like you go in and like it's already done the analysis for you. You can dive in and, and fine tune some of the stuff. I don't. It's the concept of talk to the data, but with honed in things because if you're talking to just to say talk to the data, you, you still need to know what to ask it. So we've been kind of building all these really cool reports that kind of say, here's your top fans, here's who's engaging with you the most, here's your demographics that you can see. So really some of the things that are buried in a million different places a million different ways and kind of making it just real easy because when you're ultimately talking to someone and they're like, well, you only have 500 downloads in an episode, you can say, well, but I have, across my other platforms, I've got 50,000 whatever a week, you know, so I bring, I come to the table. That's always sort of been my, especially with the podcast thing is like when you're talking about a small podcast, you can have a large podcast in a small social, you can have a large social and a small podcast, you know, they don't necessarily translate to each other, but they can leverage off each other. And so when people are talking about monetization or looking for ways to get sponsors or for their podcasts, for example, it's like to be able to accurately have a pulse on how you're doing socially in general, beyond the downloads. It's all more than that. It's more than just downloads. So that's part of what we've been kind of building towards and trying to help those that want to leverage. At some point they'll, everyone will come around to the data thing eventually. It's just, you know, making it easy to understand it is the key. And that's sort of how I come at it.

Amazing. Well, it sounds like there's a lot for us to dive into and look at. I like the fact that you've been able to consolidate things into one space so people can really get a true sense of where they are. And you mentioned something that I don't think should be overlooked or understated, which is that if you're a creator on one platform, you may not have as big of an audience, but you might have a really engaged audience on other platforms. And so, like you said, yes, the metrics are important, the downloads, the vanity metrics. But what's even more important is all that information that you're able to help clients aggregate so that they can get the full picture, see where they're performing best. Maybe if they're testing out things on different platforms, they can say, okay, this tested really well here. Let me see if it tests this well over here. So it's a very exciting way to look at our brands as full brands and not just brands as a podcaster or an Instagram influencer or a TikToker or YouTube creator or whatever the case may be.

Exactly. Yeah, you got it.

So I love having conversations with you, Jeff, and I would love to see if you have one piece of advice for people on their creative pursuits going into this year. What would that be?

Oh, piece of advice. The thing that makes me so mad about social media is specifically Instagram, even though that's the one closest to me, is the way these platforms try to convince creators to create and be creative, how they want them to be creative, to work for their algorithm. And I always, I'm like, be you. Don't play to the algorithm. I mean, you know what I mean? Understand it and all that kind of stuff. But carousel's your thing. And they're like, we like stories now, you know? Well, they're not going to, like, in a month, they're going to switch back. So, I mean, like, don't go chasing their tail, you know, I mean, it's like, do what you do and be creative for the reasons that you're creative. Because even if there's a blip where something might detract because they've decided something else, they always come back. They always come back. There's a reason people are like, hey, Instagram, just be Instagram again. Yeah. I mean, stop trying to be TikTok. Stop trying to be. I mean, it's like, it's okay when they borrow, we all borrow from things, but like, you know, it's like you gotta. From a creator point of view, it's like, you know, I think just, just be true to what you want to do and what. Make what you enjoy making. So ultimately that. That's the path to success, I think.

Nice.

Yeah.

Just be you.

You.

Be you.

Boo you. Be you.

Jeff, obviously we'll have the website in the show notes. You gave us a great piece of advice. Do you have a favorite quote, mantra, verse, poem, family motto?

Yeah. My. My favorite thing is. Don't laugh at me when I say it. This was. I don't think he first said it, but I heard him say it. It was Rob Lowe. Okay. He was talking about his coming through some. Maybe some addiction that he had. But it was a quote through that process that I thought was so great, which is. Let me see if I can get this right. Don't judge your insides by other people's outsides. And, you know, so just one of those things that I think it's important when you're looking at social media. You know, it's like, oh, look how happy they are. Look how happy they, you know, you don't know what's going on with these people. You know, I mean, then you're like, why aren't I that happy? You know what I mean? So it's like you can't judge who you are based on what other people are projecting as who they are, because it's very likely that's not who they are. So, yeah. Yeah.

Fantastic. Well, Rob Lowe, or whomever was the originator of that quote is definitely one for us to internalize and to think about. We can only be the best at being ourselves. So. Awesome. Yeah. So, Jeff, always fun to see you. Always fun to have conversations. Thank you for providing the service and a little bit about your story and your journey to everyone who's listening.

Thank you, everyone who's listening. And thank you, Anika, of course.

My pleasure. And we'll also link to all the things Stampede Social, Jeff's podcast, so you can get more great information and learn other things that you can do to be more successful on social media in today's age, where we might not get shown to all the people, we might have to figure out what we want to post that is authentic to ourselves, our brands. But we'll still get some views and maybe not the vanity metrics, but get the right people talking to us. So thanks to everybody for listening watching this episode. Thank you again to Jeff, and I'll be back again with another amazing guest to share their story and their journey very soon. Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of youf Brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out@yourbrandamplified.com.