037: Using Short Video to Build Your Audience

Have you thought about creating short videos to help build your audience, but you don't know where to start? This episode is all about getting going. Come listen as I interview one of my biz besties.

Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams.

Welcome back. I am so excited because I have one of my business BFFs with me here today. And we're, we're not actually talking about subscription boxes today, which is a little different on the podcast, but we're going to talk about something that will help you build your audience so that you can launch your subscription box, you can grow your subscriber base. And so, Tamara, why don't you just say hi real quick?

Hey guys, it's Tamara Bennett from Southern Adornments Decor. I'm so happy to be here.

So if you know me or follow me, you probably know that Tamara and I have been friends for a while, and I was thinking back this morning on We met the summer of 2018 and it feels like it should be 10 years ago, but it's not. Um, but we met at a business conference and we have become fast friends. We kind of collected this little group of 8 of us, um, that are in similar but different businesses. And we are like biz besties is what we really call ourselves. We're like biz best friends and almost more like sisters over the years because we travel together. We talk to each other every day. Um, we go through life together, but we also go through business together. And there's not a lot of people on this earth that you can share both life and business ups and downs with. But this group of women, we've just connected. It's probably one of the best things in my life, honestly. Let's just be real. I just love this group of women. And Tamara and I were roommates. So whenever we travel, we're roommates. And that kind of happened in a way that I think we're similar, but I think we're different at the same time. But we just complement each other. We have similar I would say habits of the way we, you know, get up in the morning, go to bed at night, like, and those kinds of people need to room together. So Tamara and I, we're roomies. We, we just, we fit together even though she's the clean one and I am the messy one for sure. Don't you agree, Tamara?

Yeah, definitely. And I think it helps that you're a morning shower and I'm a nighttime shower. So we're not competing for the bathroom. You know, it just, we go together like peanut butter and jelly.

We do go together like peanut butter and jelly. For sure. Well, I was, I was working on the concept for this podcast episode and I thought there is no other person that I would love to talk about this with than Tamara. No, she does not have a subscription box, but she has really mastered these short videos. And what we're going to talk about today is how you can build an audience by creating short videos. And when I say that, I'm talking about stories, Instagram stories, Facebook stories, Pinterest stories. I'm talking about Instagram Reels that have really just skyrocketed over the last 6 months in popularity. I'm talking about the ever popular TikTok videos. And the great thing about these videos is that you can create one video and use them in all of those places. And they're great for audience building and then dig deeper into the videos. You can turn these into video ads, which are also really well received. They're easily to be consumed. You're building video views, you're collecting people. You're collecting audiences. So let's just start out with Tamara. You're the perfect person because you've really dived into these short videos. So I want you to kind of give our listeners an idea of what you do in your business. And then let's talk about how you, how and why you started doing these short videos.

So I teach women how to paint door hangers. And so for those of you listening who don't know what that is, they're a wooden painted creation that hangs on your front door instead of maybe a wreath, or maybe you have combined it with a wreath to make an even bigger creation. But I think the thing I started out with was the stories. Like you said, I have been doing stories, I mean, religiously, for probably at least 4 years now. And I can go back in my story archive and see Charlie, my daughter, when she was only 2, and now she's 6. And so The thing is, is the stories are completely different to me than like TikToks or Reels. The stories only live for 24 hours, right? So we post those and they disappear to our audience for 24 hours. Now we can go back and download those or access them to repost later if we want. But for the TikToks and the Reels, those are more like evergreen content. They are short like a story, but they live forever or for as long as you like on your feed, right? So in Instagram Reels and both in TikTok, people can consume old videos that have been in there for months and months and months. And I've even had videos that have suddenly started to go viral that have been on there for a month or more that just suddenly out of nowhere started picking up steam. And so, um, I feel like they're two different things, but they serve two different purposes. I don't know how far you want to dive into both.

Well, we can, we can definitely talk about it. And I love that you said That they're content that live forever because that's, that's what I love. Come on, let's be honest. Like if I have to keep reinventing the wheel every single day, I just want to put something out there one time and I want it to just live and live and live. And as you're talking, I'm thinking about the way I watch TikToks, right? So when I find a TikTok I like, I then go to that person's page and I watch more of their TikToks. So I know exactly what you're saying. The same thing about Instagram Reels. When I see a Reel that I like, I'm like, oh, that's cute and funny. I wonder what else they do. And I go back and I look at all those other things that they do. And so it's really, It's really eye-opening that you mentioned that because I hadn't thought about how, how I do that just in my everyday watching of videos, but it's so true. So you talked about doing stories for almost 4 years now, um, and so, and you're saying stories and reels are different, but you can put a reel in your stories, correct? And so when you categorize those, what would you tell me that the differences are between Stories versus Reels and TikToks?

So stories are to engage your current followers. Like, I don't know the exact percentage, but almost 100% of the people watching your stories are people who are already following you. So that is where you go deeper with the people who've already said, yes, I want to know more about you. And you show them behind the scenes, you show them kind of the making of the product or just stuff in your daily life. One of, one of the things that always does really well for me in stories, I get lots of DMs about, is when I'm on vacation. With you guys, like with the Creative Club, and we're on trips and stuff, and I'm sharing behind the scenes, everybody's like, where are you guys? What are you doing? That looks like so much fun. And so even though we're not talking business in the DMs, it is going deeper with those people. They feel like they're along for the ride with me, even though it's not necessarily me teaching them anything. So they're just building that relationship.

I also know that I love your chicken stories. So I— if you don't know, Tamara has chickens and a chicken coop, and I love her chicken stories. I never— I don't have I don't live on a farm, I have no desire for that, but I love watching Tamara and her chickens. And so it's just a really fun way to let people connect with you on a personal level without having to be too personal with them. Is that what you would say?

Oh yeah. And you, it's funny how like we do these little stories and we kind of forget how much we've like let people into our lives. And I'm not saying it's been too much, but I will like cross somebody in the grocery store. I'll be like, oh, so how's your building coming along that you're, you know, we're building a shop on the back part of our property. I'm like, how did they know? Oh wait, I do share about that on the internet.

It feels weird because they know a little bit more about you than you ever know about them, right?

Right. Yes. But let's talk about like the difference between stories and reels, right? So reels are where you are gathering your new customers, your new people who are not following you yet. That's not to say that the people who are following you aren't gonna enjoy those. They will, but that is where you're gonna be reaching out and building a bigger community. And so you need to be putting out content that's going to attract your ideal customer.

So when you say we're building our audience with our reels because we're going after new customers, what does that look like? What do we need to put in those videos to help reach a new customer?

So I like to do a lot of things that are kind of funny and relatable. I filmed one just the other day where it said, It was like just a video of me and my husband in the car, and you could see him driving in the background. I haven't posted this one yet, but maybe by the time the podcast's up, it'll be up. But I'm filming myself, my husband's in the background, and there's just music playing, and I'm looking so disappointed. And I even look at the camera and like roll my eyes. And so I just recorded that, and then later I put text on it that said, when you're on a date night and all you want to do is take a long romantic stroll down through the Hobby Lobby aisles, but he turns toward Bass Pro Shop. Right? So that's so relatable to my ideal customer. My ideal customer is somebody who dabbles in crafts, who loves to go to Hobby Lobby, and they just want their husbands to like understand them in that way. And so I'm, I'm not necessarily trying to sell them something in that video. I'm just trying to like be like, sister, isn't this true? You know? And so that I can bring them into my world and they're like, yes, me too.

You're building that connection because what you're feeling in that moment on that drive, you know that your customer, your ideal customer, is feeling the same way on their drives. They're like, oh, they can relate to you. And they're like, oh, who's this Tamara person? I want to, I want to see more. I want to go watch more. I want to learn more about her because I relate to her, because I really would rather be at Hobby Lobby right now too than doing anything else— cleaning house, cooking dinner, whatever we're doing. Like, I would rather be there too. And so that's a great way to build connections with your customer. I love that. Let's talk about the best way that you film these. Now, you just said you were in the car and you pulled out your phone. I think that people get tripped up with thinking they have to have special lighting, special cameras, special editing software. Tell me the best way to make the short videos.

So the way that I've found that works best for me is to batch record some of these. But in order to do that, you kind of have to go backwards a little bit. What do we, what do we normally do when we're on Reels or TikTok? We just get sucked in, right? And we're scrolling and we're just watching all these videos and we're consuming. But you need to take yourself out of the consumer mindset and put yourself in the creator mindset. So next time you're sitting down with your phone out and you're scrolling through Reels or TikTok, I don't know if you guys know this, but you can save TikTok or Reels videos inside the app. And I don't know exactly how it works on Reels. I think there's a little button you hit and you like save it to your favorites. You can do the same thing in TikTok. So while you're scrolling, if you see one that you're like, oh, I love how she did that video with her husband in the car, I want to recreate that concept. So you save that to your favorites, right? And then you're scrolling some more and maybe you see one of somebody showing behind the scenes of how to make a bow or something. Save that one and you think, okay, that's going to remind me later, I need to make a video next time I do a bow. Let's see what else. Maybe you're— I've seen some where people are showing their Rolo printer printing off orders, right? And/or packaging an order, and maybe you like the way that video is done, save all of those to your favorites. Now, one of the things I really love to do is to find those sounds that are really funny. I was telling Sarah right before we hopped on here, there was a TikTok where in the TikTok the video said, why buy it for $7 when you can make it for $92 in craft supplies? And it was a woman's voice saying those words, and I had saved that to my favorites in TikTok. So this morning when I had an extra 10 minutes before I had to hop on here with Sarah, I pulled up I took that sound and I clicked use sound in my own video because you can save those videos and reuse the sounds for your own videos. And then all you have to do is like lip sync along. And yes, that is tricky, but—

I've never done that. So is it kind of a skill you have to have? I think I'm afraid to do it because it looks like it's hard.

So I would say pick easy ones. Don't pick one where they're saying a million words. You know, I knew that that was a short enough clip. I could memorize those words.

Okay.

And then there's a timer function inside of TikTok. So when you click use that sound, hit the timer and it will count down 3, 2, 1. And while it's— and before you hit the timer, it will replay the sound for you. So if you need to re-listen to it a few times, you can. And when you're ready, hit the timer, it will count down. And then when it's ready to go, you're already in place, you're ready to go. Now, sometimes it takes me like 7 or 8 takes to actually get the lip sync just right. But by that many times you've been practicing and you're syncing up your words better and better. And so at the end, it looks like you're the person who said those original words. And a lot of times it tricks people because when they're going through the feed, they don't know it wasn't your original audio. But that's the magic of TikTok. And so those kind of videos are just really fun to do.

And do you use your phone to record all of those?

Everything. Yeah. My iPhone. Yeah. Don't overthink it. Definitely.

You don't have to have a fancy camera. You don't have to have editing software because you can edit your videos right inside either Reels or TikTok, correct? Yes, you don't need to edit them outside of that. So let's talk about— I know you just mentioned a few of these suggestions on what you could make TikToks on. Let's elaborate. Let's just make a big brainstorm list for them, because what we, what we want to do is show them how easy it is. So we just showed you how easy it is. Tamara can do it in the car. Tamara can do it, you know, at her desk, and it doesn't have to take a long time. Yes, she did 7 or 8 takes. Takes, but when we're talking about 15 seconds, that's not a— it's not a long time. It's not like 7 or 8 takes of a 30-minute podcast, right? So you can just practice a little bit, and I know that the more you do, the more you're comfortable with it, so it gets easier as you go. But let's just do a big brainstorm session. So we talked about behind the scenes. So when you are making something, you're talking about making a bow. I've seen them with you as you're cutting out your door hangers. For us, it's like you, you also mentioned when you're packing an order, grab an order once a week and just walk around your shop pulling the items. Pick something that has a lot of items in that order, and people love to see, oh, how, how is everything organized? How is that set up? And so you can kind of walk them around your, your shop, or if that's in your house or your warehouse or your retail store, it's interesting, right? So we're creating something that's interesting. They don't care about what's in that order. They care about what's in the, in the frame, like where you're going to pack that order. Order. So that's a really good one. I love like a product reveal. So if you have like a new product, you can reveal that with a short video. I know something you do a lot is, um, when somebody asks you a question, you pull that question up on camera and then you answer it with a short video. Can you give them like a, an example of that?

So for instance, somebody saw in one of my videos where I mentioned the fact that for our door hangers we provide templates so you can recreate the same design that I'm using. And somebody said, do you tape those together? Like, how does— like, because they know, like, their printer can't print something that's like 24 inches wide, so they're trying to envision how to assemble those papers. And so I just held my finger down on the comment in TikTok, and then it said create video with this, with this comment, or reply with a video or something. And so then it automatically does that for you. It puts the comment up on the screen.

I had no idea.

And so what I really love about that content though, Sarah, is that if you watch that video with that comment, a lot of viewers like me, I do this, will watch that and they'll be like, well, she commented on another video. I want to see what that was. And if you tap on the comment, it'll take you back to the original video they commented on. So then they're binge watching your content.

You're going down this rabbit hole of all these different questions and answers. And it's a great way to kind of do a Q&A without showing up live and doing a long hour-long Q&A. You can do it in these short videos. And what Tamara said in the very beginning of our podcast episode was that these live forever. So when you're doing a Facebook Live, those kind of fizzle out a little bit. You do them once, they're great for a few days, and then they kind of get in the bone pile of Facebook Live land. But when you're doing these little videos, they get juice and they get— and people go back to them because they're quick. I don't have to watch an hour Q&A Live to find an answer to a question. I can watch Tamara do a really quick video, find it really easily. And then I'm consuming, I'm consuming that information very quickly. It allows me to consume more information. It allows me to get to know, like, and trust Tamara. And then I'm, I'm connected. Now I'm connected. Now I want to join your program. Now I want to buy stuff. Now, now I'm in. And that's exactly what we can do with our videos. Let's talk about a few more things. Um, let's give them a few more suggestions. Tamara, I want you to dive into trends because I know that's a really big thing more and more on TikTok, and we're seeing it more and more on Reels. And there's really something specific with these like music trends or video trends. Can you talk a little bit about that?

So a lot of times there's a song that'll start to pick up steam and somebody out there in TikTok land has created either a dance or maybe a hand movement. And, you know, it's kind of like learning the Macarena. There's like a quick little hand movement you have to learn in order to get it down. And so if you can learn just a few steps, and I'm not a dancer, let me just say that you do not have to be a dancer in order to in order to make great videos on TikTok. But there was one recently that I did where you had to learn how to, you know, stack your hands on, kind of like the wise man built his house upon the rock, that sort of motion. You had to smack your fists together and then clap and then do your hands up and down in a pointing motion. And it was along to the beat of this song. And so I was seeing this a lot in my feed and I'm like, okay, this is a trend that everybody's doing. And so when the fingers would point up and point down in the motion, and they would point to some words. And so the trend was is that you do this dance along with this song and you answer common questions that you get asked. So that's, that's the trend that everybody was using it for. You don't have to use it for that, but that was just kind of what people come to expect when they hear that song and see that dance in their feed. And so you could do that with like common questions I get asked about my subscription box. And then you— there's— it usually allows for, I think the beat of the song allows for 3 questions that you can answer.

And so you're just— you basically learned this little hand motion to go along with the beat of the song, and then you popped 3 questions in about how to paint a door hanger or something like that. And then as your fingers go up to the beat of the song, you're giving the question, and then the bottom, then you're giving the answer. And so it's a fun little way to connect. Again, it's just answering those questions. I've also seen you do some trends where you're giving like tips. So I think that's important in our businesses too, like especially when we're thinking about our subscription boxes. If you have something in your subscription box that you can give a tip on, like how to use this, how to make it, how to, you know, whatever you've got inside your box, if you can use these with ways to use or consume what's in your subscription box, then one, your subscribers are going to, are more likely to consume it. And two, if you're not a subscriber, they're like, well, I want that. How do I get one of those? And so you're just creating some more FOMO. With your products. What other, what other suggestions do you have, Tamara, for these short videos?

So I feel like, can I speak to one mistake I see people making?

Absolutely.

So one mistake that I feel like a lot of people make when they start stepping into doing TikToks is they will just be repurposing videos that they have done, um, and it'll be like a time-lapse video. And I've done it too. I mean, some of them do decent, but they're really not created for the culture of TikTok, right? So they're taken from something else that you made and they're chopped down and then they're repurposed on TikTok. So when people watch those, they know that, like, we just were smart. We know that that was not created for the TikTok community. And people in— and I know I'm speaking a lot about TikTok. I'm more into TikTok than I am Reels, but this is the same sort of concept. It's the same on Reels, I'm sure, as it is on TikTok. TikTok, um, people who are all about TikTok or all about Reels, when you're in there watching videos, it feels like an inside joke, right? Or an inside club. Like, we all know that little song and that little dance. We all recognize that trend. And so it feels like we're part of some like elite secret group that like only knows these little things. And so when you throw in a random video that's been repurposed from somewhere else, It's like one of these things doesn't belong, you know, it just doesn't feel right in this, in TikTok. So that's why it's great to do trends and stuff because it keeps you ingrained in the community and the culture of TikTok. And so one video I did just the other day was, it was some cute little song and all I did was like say help. And I think at the beginning of the video I went, shh, and I did the word help across the screen. And then during the dance, I popped some words up that said, I'm looking for some crafting besties, who wants to connect? And I think within a couple of hours I had like 200 comments on that TikTok. Now that just started blowing up. So I treated it just like I would have if I were on any other platform. I started going in and I was like going to their profiles and seeing if they make videos. If they do, I was replying and saying, I love your wreaths or whatever. And so I was saying, hi, I'm from Kentucky, where are you from? And I'm having actual conversations with people. Inside of the comments. And I can tell you my TikTok has blown up since I've started doing that because I'm treating it like a community. I'm welcoming you in. It's like you're part of my club now.

You're engaging with them. You're not just putting the videos out there for them to consume. You're actually putting them out there for them, but then you're engaging them and you're, you're connecting with them on a different level. We've talked about connecting with people several times through this episode. And that's all this is creating content that people can connect with and then engaging them in conversation where you can to build those connections and deepen those connections. And I'm sure several of those are now following you on all the social media because you're connecting with them on a personal level. And it doesn't have to be like, people get afraid of like doing too many videos because I don't want to put my personal life out there. I don't want to, I don't want to share everything. And you don't have to. You simply connected with them because you make crafts and they are crafters in some form and you're connecting with them based on those things. It's not about how many kids you have and what your husband does for a living. And all of that stuff. You're connecting with them based on what you do and what they do and what they like. And it's really great way to build your audience.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Before we started recording, we had a little chat about, you know, I think you're amazing at these short videos. And I think you've been amazing at these short videos for a long time. But I know that you said you really have just found your zone with them. Can you walk me through your processes on how you create your videos? I know you batch create some videos, kind of give us a rundown of, okay, on this day I'm going to create some videos and what does that look like? And then how do I use them? I don't use them all right away, right? So talk us through your process of creating a video.

So there's a couple different ways. Sometimes I'm just in the middle of a project and I'm painting and, you know, since, since I'm a content creator, everything I do can be content. And so if I'm sitting down painting, I know that that could easily be a TikTok video. So I might record— this is going to be the easiest way for those of you who've never created short-form video. I tried to teach the Creative Club this while we were at the beach. I was like, just get out your phone, record 3 to 5 second clips, just 3 to 5 second clips of a very short, very short— yes, and they don't have to be perfect. Just hold your phone over the project while you're painting and record a quick clip. Move on, paint some more, and when you get to another part of the project, or if you're packing a box or whatever it is you're doing, just record the process. Right? And so 3 to 5 second clips. So in your camera roll, you now have, let's say, 5 clips that are at least 3 seconds long. Well, that's perfect for a 15-second TikTok.

Yep.

Then you go into the TikTok app, you hit the plus sign, and then you go and you select all of those little videos in the order in which you want them to appear. There's a couple of different ways that you can do this in TikTok. Once you upload those into TikTok, you can choose a song song, and TikTok will do the work for you, and it will sync those videos to the beat of the sound, which is so cool. And it makes you look so good at video editing because it makes it look like you really put together this cool video that pops to the music. But if for some reason, um, the videos aren't showing the exact part that you want, it's a little bit trickier. But you can go in your camera roll and like take that 5-second clip, and maybe there's only 2 seconds of that clip you actually want to No, in your camera roll you can like trim your video down to just those 2 seconds, then go back into TikTok and re-upload. And so you just want it to show those little videos, and then you can just put some text on there. Make sure and use your hashtags. That is like the number one thing. Um, and don't go— one of the mistakes I made in the beginning was going after all these hashtags that had like a million hits. You want to go after the hashtags that only have like 600K or less if possible. Possible, because those are going to be— you're going to be like a bigger fish in that pond. You're going to end up seeing— being shown to more people. It's not as much competition. And so go for those really niched-down hashtags if you can. The other way that I make videos— so that is like while I'm in the middle of a project or doing something in the middle of my work day, I might record those little clips, right?

And I know you're putting them together later. You're not like stopping your process, you're just shooting those, um, quick little clips during your process, and then later when you're done and you have some downtime, you're putting the actual video together, right?

Exactly. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not creating the TikTok in the moment. They're just staying on my camera roll, and they might be on my camera roll for a month before I actually sit down and like make a TikTok out of them. The other way is, like I was telling you guys, when you're saving all those videos in your favorites, if you have a day when your hair and your makeup look great and you feel high energy and really confident, confident, pull— and you just got some time— pull up those videos that you've saved in your favorites and find one to recreate, or find 30 to recreate. Like, I did like 17 of them in a couple of hours one day just because I was feeling high energy. Like, I'm on days when I'm up, I am up, and I can get a lot done. And so I was doing all of these quick videos, and some of them are just a little dance move or like a little, um, lip sync that didn't take— like, maybe the clip was 6 seconds long, and all I had to do was like turn my head and look at the camera and say, let's go. And so I record that clip, hit put, and then I save it to the drafts. So I right now probably have 17 videos in my drafts, and they're all clips of me doing something. I might be lip syncing, or I might be sharing a tip or something. And then when I have downtime, like maybe in the evening when my husband's watching the news and I have nothing better to do, I pull out my phone, I open a draft, and I start typing in the text that I want it to have. And so that little clip, like I said, where I turn my head and look at the camera and say, let's go, I added some text on there that said, when your friend, uh, texts you and says, do you want to go to Hobby Lobby? And then of course you're like, let's go. And so fun little videos like that that you can quickly record and batch create and save them to your drafts. You can go back later and then, like Like some of these I record, I don't even know what text I'm gonna put on them. I just know they're cute, trendy little sound and I'll figure it out later because later my brain may have more creative ideas than it does right now.

Yeah, so the trick really is not to overthink it. I always, I think for me, my workday is a little hectic and I think at the end of the day, oh, that would have made a cute video, but I'm already done with the process. So in my mind, I have to just take a few moments and shoot some quick videos knowing that I'm probably not gonna get to that today or tomorrow, but maybe by the end of the week I will. But then by the end of the week, when I have time to make those videos, I'm like, well, we already did all the fun stuff. I don't have anything to video now. And so I've got to stop and just take some videos in the moment so that I have more of those for Reels, for TikToks, for stories. I can use them all over the place. And it's just one of those great things that keep building your audience. You keep finding new followers and you're letting them into your world a little bit. What advice would you give to someone that has never done any kind of video and they may be scared, you know, and you know that I felt this at some point in my career, but you know, sometimes it's hard to turn the camera on. You're an Enneagram 7, so you just are all about having fun. You can do a little dance and turn the video on, but not all of us are 7s, you know. And so it's sometimes it's hard. Uh, and so what, what would your advice be to someone that has never done a video before? I think this is the perfect place to start because they're so short, but what advice would you give them? Them?

Okay, so I don't know what the hangup is for people. So we're gonna say like, okay, we're gonna start with the people who are like, I hate my voice, right? Some people hate their voice. If you're that person, then just do a video. It could just be recording something. You don't have to do any talking. You don't have to do any voiceover. There's actually a feature in TikTok. I don't know if Reels has it yet, but you can type in some text and then when you tap on the text, you can hit text text-to-speech and a little robot voice will read off the text for you. And so that's actually a fun little thing inside TikTok that when you hear that voice in TikTok, you feel like you're a part of that TikTok culture, right? So it just feels organic. It feels right. So if you hate your voice, just use the little text-to-feature button and it will fit right into the TikTok algorithm. It'll be fine. If you hate seeing yourself on video—

I think that's probably the biggest one there, Tamara.

That's probably the biggest one. Just record your hands doing the work. Or, you know, make your product the star or your— make something else the star of the video instead of your face. But I do want to say, if any of these things are you being concerned about what you look like, what you sound like, what people are going to think about you, and it's just a general insecurity, you're not there for people to like you. You're there to serve people. So you just need to switch your mindset. Take yourself out of the equation, quit worrying about what everybody's thinking about you, and think about the person who's— who is going to be helped by watching your video. That has always helped me more than anything. If I'm like, oh, that video, I look so goofy or so silly. And I get up in my head about it and I'm thinking about deleting it. I'm like, nope, because somebody is going to feel like I'm relatable because they're just as goofy as me. And they're going to feel like that girl can help me because she's down on my level.

Yeah. And here's the thing that I learned early on was that people aren't, people aren't watching these TikToks to see some supermodel in a super produced video doing all all the things perfect. People watch these videos and people will relate to you because of who you are, whether you are old or young, whether you are skinny or fat, whether you are pretty or you have age spots on your face like me. Like, people relate to people. People relate to me because of who I am, because of what size I am or what I look like or how old I am. And those are the people that are my subscribers. And so that's the people I want. I am not looking for a 20-year-old perfect Barbie doll models. Um, those are not the people that wear my things. And so just putting yourself out there in a small way, this is a great way for you to get started. If you've had a fear of doing a Facebook Live or doing an Instagram Live before, this is a great way just to dip your toes in. It's a 15-second, 30-second video, and you can just start to get comfortable with yourself on camera. I think that was the biggest thing for me was I wasn't comfortable with myself on camera. And then once you do these and you start doing them repetitively, then you're, you're ready for the next level. You're ready to show up on a live and talk to people for 30 minutes. You're ready to do other things, but this is a great way to dip your toe in. And while you're doing it, you're connecting with people, you're building your audience, and you're probably making sales with these videos as well. Wouldn't you agree?

Oh yeah. And when you said making sales, it reminds me, there are some of these people on TikTok who are making something that's like handmade and all they've done is show their hand. Hands making the earrings or the process, and they'll put some text on it that says, these will be available in my Etsy shop on Friday, and they sell out immediately.

Yes, it's incredible because we desperately want to have a meaning behind the things that we buy. So if I can see that someone made this with their hands, or someone designed this with their hands, or something— somebody made it, it didn't come from a factory, it didn't come, you know, out whatever. But I know that this person that made, made this with their hands, their own creativity, that makes me want to buy it 10 times more. And so we just got to show people that. We got to show people how hard we work. We got to show them a little bit of behind the scenes into our businesses, and they're going to buy into what we're selling that much more. They're going to be connected with us that much more, and we're going to grow our audiences. So Tamara, I love watching your videos. Um, anyone here that is listening that would love to go check out your videos, where can they find you?

Southern Adornments Decor on all the platforms.

All the platforms. You can find her on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, all the places. Go check out some of your videos and save them, just like Tamara told you, because you're going to draw inspiration from her videos and other videos. And if you're not watching them because you're like, I don't want to do them, go watch some reels, go watch some TikToks, save them, get some ideas, get out your little notebook, start jotting down some— oh, like, I love that, I could do that. Oh, I love that. I could do that. Start jotting down some notes, start getting ready to make some videos. And let's get going. Because these, like I told you in the beginning, anytime you have a really good video that's getting a lot of views, you can turn that into a video view ad. And that is going to bring people more and more people your way. We're building audiences. And sometimes it's like growing grass. This is a great way to propel that and go and go faster. Tamara, thank you so much for joining me today. It was a lot of Fun.

Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.

All right, I'll see you guys back here next week for our next episode. Make sure you subscribe to the Launch Your Box podcast. I'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review it. Let me know which episode is your favorite so far. Don't forget to join me next week right here.