Episode #800 - Gain 25 Million Monthly Views On TikTok with Ben Askins

Welcome to this edition of the million dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

What platform do you make these let your opinion on, on these situations. You know what, write a blog or you put on LinkedIn or where did, what platform did you are using to where the word got out about.

TikTok. Yeah, no, TikTok was the big. I do post on other platforms now and I'm starting to launch new channels but yeah, TikTok was the big one for me. So I think in, yeah, about eight months I jumped to 650,000 or something.

Really? And how long would these, would this be you and video talking through something? Is that how you would do it? Very simply, low tech.

Yeah, just camera set up at home I have a guy who helps with editing. So yeah, once every two weeks I'll film a batch of these stories and people send me the content. That's kind of what's amazing about it is a really, in a weird way it's kind of more low effort now than it was at the start because people send me stories and so I just re read them out and react to them. But it's amazing the power of the personal brand. I've been quite amazed by in the last year because you know my, my videos get about 25 million views a month now, which is more than a lot of news channels. Like it's amazing how much these brands can really help grow your business. But also you sort of get your voice out there and you know what you stand from what you believe. So it's been a journey these last of eight months or so for sure.

20, 25 million.

Yeah.

Oh, these are numbers that are just hard to relate to, aren't they?

Yeah, it's wild. And you think it's just. And like you can imagine a stadium of 25 million or you know me like think how many, think how many people that is. It's, it's hundreds of thousands of hours of people watching me just kind of rant about bosses on. It's wild. It's, it's a whole new world out there and you know, people in the States, it's Australia, it's South Africa, it's not just the uk. So yeah, it's, it's been, it's been kind of wild when you actually break it down and think about the numbers.

But you know, that's kind of like more than all of the people in all the stadiums of all the games of the World cup or something.

Yeah. And think about what, like, yeah, what you know, think how much it costs to, you know, attract 25 million viewers to a TV show, for example, or. And this is just simply me and my video editor just talking in, in the kitchen of my flat basically.

Now when you, how long are these videos? What, what have you found is the most effective length for those TikTok videos?

So TikTok as a platform is definitely pushing longer form content. So TikTok started off like 10, 15 second like fun reels, right. They're now definitely moving. They're definitely moving, you know, sort of Instagram and YouTube and sort of take market capital and that kind of push towards long form content. YouTube in particular. So about two to three minutes long now each video.

Okay. And so two to three minutes would be the long form. And are you finding a better response from those than you had earlier on or about the same?

Definitely. I think people, people do just buy into. I mean I do a different types of content but one I talk about worst bosses and read a story out. Those definitely do best. But you know, I think it's important to try new things. You know, I posted an 8 minute one once and that did very well. So you know, it's good to mix it up. But yeah, definitely the longer the better. Seems to go be going that way actually.

Amazing that anyone could have that kind of spread or that kind of impact. And you, you said eight months. All of this is a recent phenomena.

Yeah. So I start maybe nine now. I started end of March last year. So nine, nine. I guess now really now.

What do you think? How did you get recognized by Forbes? Was that for your digital media work? Like top under 30 recognition there?

Yeah, so that was for the, my first business verb. So we were the class of 2020. So me and my business partner, you know, very, very honored in assigned the class of 2020 for marketing, which was, yeah, a huge, huge honor for sure. It was very, very nice moment.

And do you. How does something like that, how big of an impact does something like that make? Does that lay the groundwork for. Give you credibility as you start your, your, your green technology company as you start with TikTok. Are these things all pretty much different?

Yeah, so I always describe it as moving the boulder. You know, my second business is a hell of a lot. I mean it's hard in a lot of ways as all businesses are. It's a new space. But the knowledge that I have for my first Business makes it so much more straightforward. And the profile I have, you know, we, we raised funds for this first, for the second business. And the reason I was able to raise funds was because I had the credentials of the first business. You know, I would never have been able to do that for my first company. So yeah, it makes a huge difference. And it's about getting the bolder, removing. You know, the hardest point is day one, day two, day three. Those are the hardest times. The hardest pound to win or the hardest dollar is those first few that you win. And it just gets easier and easier and easier as soon as you get the ball rolling. And that's not to say it's ever easy because I think that's the wrong word. But it gets easier. And so for me it adds credentials, things like that. For sure. It's obviously a nice gratification for myself. It kind of tells me I'm on the right track, which I think is important as well, and kind of keeps you motivated. But I think it was a moment for sure. You know, we describe moments I think of recognized. You know, that was a moment where everyone went, oh, wow, they've got an actual business that's not just, you know, a little hobby, side hustle, whatever you want to call it, that's a legitimate business and it's being recognized by, you know, a famous publication. So it was a very nice moment for sure. But I think those moments are important because I think entrepreneurs in general are quite bad at recognizing how far they are because and it goes back to everyone trying to win, win the week one nil. They sort of go, oh, this week was good or this week was bad. It's like, actually no, in a week you'll have lots of small wins and lots of small losses. And as long as your wins outnumber your losses, you can take that as a win. Whereas if you kind of put it all or nothing, you're going to end up disappointed in a lot of weeks of the year, I'm afraid.

One little specific question about TikTok posts. How often are you posting? You say once every two weeks you get together and do a batch of these. How often do you roll them out?

Once every day. And, and that consistency is really important if anyone's looking to grow on social. Step one is just being consistent and not being too fussy because your first contact, I'll just tell you now, even if you're really proud of it, your first few efforts are going to be terrible. You know, I look back at what I did nine months ago. And it's just. It's just cringy. It's so embarrassing. But I don't delete them because I think it's important to kind of recognize how far you've gone. And I've no doubt I'll be sitting here in a year saying, looking at posts that I did this week going, well, that was embarrassing. I can't believe I was doing so. You know, there's a great phrase that I love which I can't remember. One of the big marketing firms came up with was, you know, you can't do your hundredth without doing your first. And I really do buy into that. You know, sometimes you just have. There's no perfect time to do something. There's no perfect way to do something. Sometimes you just have to get cracking. And I'm a big believer in that philosophy.

And there's really hard to be good at anything until you do at least 100 of them, you know, and. Oh yeah, I learned that early on and now as you. When did you start your newsletter?

I started my newsletter end of last year. Towards the end of last year. Yeah.

So I was before the Tick Tock adventure.

So no, so it was just after. So since TikTok's kind of blown up, I've started to establish new channels. So my newsletters news, that's one I really enjoy doing. Actually I do like writing. It's not something I get to do too often at the moment. Um, so I send a weekly newsletter giving career advice out to younger generations.

And what you do are people. You're responding to messages that people leave for you, questions they're leading for you. You're just a Q and A type thing.

Yes. You know, you still start find your voice. But essentially what I do is I pick out one of the stories that someone sends to me and establish a theme from that. And then I write a piece about, you know, go to a little bit more, try give people more excise. I'm a big fan of practical advice. I think it's very easy to just say like o quit your job or you know, just do something you love and throw out cliches like that. But actually what people need is, you know, here are the three ways I exercises I do to work out what you would like to do or here are the. Here's the process you should do to actually quit your job. You know, it's things like that which I think practical advice is often lacking online. And so, you know, my newsletter is my way to try and fill that void a Little bit, yeah.

And how do people get on your newsletter?

So if go on my LinkedIn profile or my, any of my social platforms, you should see the link there and you click on that and you can subscribe straight away. And it's completely free.

Yeah. Fantastic. So where are you speaking from today?

I am in London, where I live just south of the river in London.

Now you have an affinity for Greece for some reason and you speak passable Greece. Greek as far as I understand. Where does that affinity come from?

So I spent 10 years of my childhood living in Greece. So when I was 2, my dad's job took us out there. So I lived there till I was about 12, 13.

Yeah. Any aspirations to living there more permanently in the future?

So I mean Greece, we go there every year with, with my family is the Greek islands are by far and away my favorite place on earth. It's just one of those locations that just feed your very soul. You know, the food's amazing, the people's amazing. It's not a place I don't think I will certainly not in the near future I will live there. But it's a place I will never not go to because I just find it the most incredible place on earth. Really.

I've never, I've never heard the phrase the Greek Highlands. I've heard the Scottish Highlands. I've never heard.

Sorry, sorry. The Greek, the Greek islands. Not the Greek islands. Okay, Island.

I was, I was going short circuited there for a minute.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Greek kilts are not what you'd like, right?

Well, I appreciate your time. I wish you the best in your new adventure. I'm looking forward to circling back and touching base with you in the future because I feel like you're going to learn a lot of things, you're going to help a lot of people. And what would you say is the main pain you went through or sacrifice price you had to pay. There's always a price you have to pay for success. What would you say? You look back, what is the biggest price? Sacrifice. Painful type things you had to force yourself to go through or maybe you went through to no choice of your own. It just happened and you had to endure it. What, what would you tell people it.

For sure is my personal life. I lost contact with friends who I've been friends with since school. I lost contact with a lot of family and I actually made a conscious decision to course correct. So it was about five, six, seven years in. You know, me and my business partner, we recognized that actually, you know, although we were on paper, very successful. Some monetary perspective, actually. We both recognized that this wasn't long term, it wasn't worth it. And so for us, we made a conscious decision to spend more time with friends and family and all of that. And we've never regretted that decision, you know, even if you, you know, knocked a little bit off the valuation of the company. We decided that actually, because that's success. Right, but what's the cost of success? And I think what the cost is, is an important decision and a question to ask yourself because, you know, people go, I want to be a millionaire and you go, okay, would you accept how many millions, you know, how few millions would you want if you also got to do this and this with your life and enjoy that part and if you'd be happy and all that sort of thing. So the cost of success is something I always get people to think about because, you know, I've lived and breathed and I know how important it is. So for me, I was quite lucky. I was able to course correct and save some of those relationships where I lost contact, but there were some I didn't. And that's the price I've definitely paid. So for me, I do think about that a lot and recognize the importance of carving out that time for you as much as it is for your business.

Great words of wisdom. I wish you nothing but the best. Ben, do you have any parting, one more bit of parting insight to pass.

On.

For all of the up and coming high achievers, motivated people who've been listening to us?

Yes, the working life has changed forever. And the entrepreneurs that are going to be the most successful are the ones who accept that and not try and keep it to the way things were. I think the next few years are going to change how we recognize work life culture and work life balance and what people want from their jobs. And I think the entrepreneurs and the businesses are the most successful, are the ones who are going to embrace that rather than just fight it.

So what would the big, what were the big distinctions be? And someone who embraces that versus someone who doesn't?

I mean, I think, I mean, Covid tore up the rule book, right? You know, working from home and establishing remote working changed the rulebook on how businesses work. And I'm seeing a real trend at the moment of, and a disconnect between teams and like what bosses and entrepreneurs and founders want and people want founders and entrepreneurs want people in the office. And a lot of people don't want to do me in the office five days a week. I I'm a big fan of hybrid working. I works best for all in involved. But the businesses that are going to struggle are the ones who don't recognize the world has changed from what you were used to. And I think for me, the advice I try and give is the best entrepreneurs in the business kind of embrace change and go with the flow. If you try and fight it, you always lose out in the long run, I think. And so that's kind of my passing thought, I guess you'd say.

Yeah, it appears to be a losing game to fight the way the world is headed. You know, it's hard to win that fight by yourself. It's better to get yourself in the middle of where the momentum is and let it work for you rather than against you, I think. Ben, I wish you the best.

Exactly. Exactly.

I'm amazed.

Likewise. It's nice to meet you.

I'm amazed that you're following. I'm excited about what you've learned so far and I'm excited about how you're using it to impact other people in a positive way so early in your career. And so I know that's going to pay big dividends for you. So congratulations.

I really appreciate that. That's very kind and thank you so much for having me on.

We'll look forward to talking down the road. Thanks so much.

Looking forward to it. Take care.

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