Build an Audience First, Build Your Business Second

Hey everybody, welcome back. This is officially my last live of the week. We have been live every single day bringing you one of the best stories from my brand new book, One Box at a Time. So in every chapter, I have been interviewing, um, different people, um, that I have featured in the book. And today Brittany's gonna join me. Brittany is currently stuck in traffic. She will be with us shortly, but I am here to get us started because today is all about building an audience. So what I'd love for you to let me know in the chat, number one, have you received your book? Are you still waiting? So I want you to let me know that. And number two, I want you to let me know if you're still in the audience building stage, like you haven't launched your subscription. Maybe you're still building your audience. Now listen, it doesn't matter if you've launched your subscription, if you are building your business right now, we will always be audience building. We will always be audience building. And I don't ever want you to take your eye off of audience building because when we take off our— take our eye off audience building, that's when we start to lose traction. That's when we start to lose all the progress that we've been making in our business because we cannot keep marketing to the same people over and over and over again. They've seen our offer. They've either taken it or not. So if we're not constantly getting more traffic, building our list, building our following, we're going to be losing traction with our business. There's a quote that someone said one time, and I don't even remember who it was, but it said, He said, if you're not growing, you're dying. And I thought, wow, that's harsh. If you're not growing, you're dying. But it's true. If you're not constantly audience building, your business is slowly going to die off. You're slowly going to lose subscribers to cancellations. You're slowly going to die off because you won't be able to refill the bucket. And so we're going to talk about that today. If you have the book, page 31, I just made a little note on this page. Page 31. I want you to highlight or underline this for me, but it says build an audience first, build your business second. The number one reason why launches fail, businesses fail, we can't sell products is because we haven't built an audience yet. It's the number one reason. And I've got some action steps in this book right here. Let me find what page they're on. This, this chapter is very meaty. This is Chapter 3. I've got some great action steps in here. 4 ways to grow your email list is in Chapter 3. I give it all to you. This is exactly how you build your email list. Okay, I'm talking about, um, oh gosh, I'm talking about building your following. I'm talking about 5 parts of a live video on page 41. I'm talking about your posting schedule right here, what you should be posting, what, when, and why. Um, I'm talking about here's ideas of what to post So there's so much actionable, tactical information in Chapter 3. I want you to really take this chapter in. It does not matter if you've had a business for 3 years. It does not matter if you're brand new to business and you're just starting out. What you're going to get from Chapter 3, I want you to pretend like you're a brand new business and I want you to go through Chapter 3 and really think about, am I doing this? Because me being 10 years into my business, I— when I get stuck, when I hit a plateau, when I think that my business is like, you know, that little curve— that's the sound you make with the curve— um, when I feel like that, I always go back to the basics. And one of those number one basic things is building the audience. So if I can go back to the way that I know how to build an audience and go through these actionable steps here in Chapter 3, I always come back on top. I always like, oh yeah, I know to do that. Why am I not doing that? Why have I forgotten to do that? It's because we get into step 7, 8, 9, 10, we're working on other things and we don't realize step 2, 3, and 4 have fallen off the wagon. And so we get so wrapped up on doing the next thing or trying something else or doing something else when really all we need to do is go back to step 2, step 3, step 4, and remind ourselves that this worked at the beginning of our business. It's going to work now too. We need to go back to the basics. So if you've been struggling to grow your audience, I'm going to challenge you to go back to Chapter 3 and, and take it all in. I want you to highlight. I want you to write. I want you to dog tag the ears, dog ear the book. Like, I want you to make this a workbook, a working book for you. And I want you to say, am I doing this? Yes or no? Am I doing this? Yes or no? Could I be doing this better? Yes or no? I really want you to take stock in your business. And I don't want you to have the mindset of Oh, I'm so much further than this. Because when you do that, you're going to leave money on the table. You're going to leave your list on the table. You're going to leave your following on the table. You're going to leave potential subscribers on the table. When you have the mindset that you're past this level— I'm past chapter 3, Sarah— we're never past chapter 3, ever. You should be doing chapter 3 in your business every single month. And if you're not doing chapter 3 in your business every single month, you're leaving money on the table, period. That's it. I'm gonna come over to the chat real quick and say hi to everybody. Hey, Lexi, good morning. Good afternoon. It's somewhere in the middle depending on what part of the country you're on or if you're in another country. Jamie says, I'm always audience building, always audience building. YouTuber over here received my book 2 days ago and building my audience. Chapter 3 is so important for you. I want you to really take it all in. Sarah says, good book, almost done. Did a launch, failed, rethinking it, rethinking and doing it by the book, following each step. It's your playbook. This is literally your playbook. And Sarah, I want to talk about something really quickly. I want you— if you guys have your books, because this is a working book, we're going to use it every time I talk, probably for the rest of my life. It took me so long to write this book. We're just going to use it every time I talk. So just make sure when you come to trainings in Launch Your Box or Scale Your Box, when you come to Monday Momentum, just bring your book with me because we might reference it. Sarah was talking about how her launch failed. And in this book, It's page 49 for those of you that have your book and want to make some doodles or highlights. Page 49, 3 reasons why launches fail. I say, before we wrap this chapter, I want to explain to you the top 3 reasons why I see subscription box launches fail. And I say, but Sarah, why are we talking about launching now? I've barely even started growing my audience. And I say, because The success of your launches start with audience building. Okay, so number 1, these are the reasons when someone comes screaming into Launch Your Box saying, Sarah, I did all the things and I— my launch has failed, my launch— I've gotten 1 subscriber, I've got no subscribers. This is what I go look at. I'm like, okay, if you've done all the things Let me check. Let me hold you accountable. Let me make sure you've done all the things before we decide that my plan doesn't work, because I know my plan works, because it's not only worked for me in my businesses, but it's worked for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of you. So if the plan stops working, I want to know that so that I can adjust the plan. So when someone says, I've done everything you've told me to do, Sarah, and it didn't work, I gotta check because I want to make sure that what I'm teaching you is legit, what I'm teaching you is still working, what I'm teaching you is helping you build your business. I don't teach fluff. I don't teach, um, the what-if. I don't teach, well, this is what could happen. I teach you real strategic, actionable things that will help you build your build your business. And if that stops working, I have to recreate that strategy. So when someone says the plan isn't working, I, I take that personal and I want to go find out. So in the book I wrote, 3 reasons why launches fail. Number 1: inconsistent social media presence. Almost always when someone tells me that their launch has failed and they've done everything, I will immediately go to their social media first. Maybe they posted one day last week, 3 times another week, 3 times in one day a while ago, and then they've ghosted their social media. Social media platforms don't respond well to sporadic posting, and neither do audiences. It's all about consistency. You don't have to have the best content. You don't have to have the high-quality videographer running around, professional photo shoots, all of the things. It's about being consistent with your social media and putting content in front of them that is interesting, entertaining, or helpful. That's it. That's it. But what I see more often than not is people being inconsistent with their social media. Okay, number 2. This is page 50. Their messaging is confusing and they're not speaking to a specific person. When you meet Brittany here in a minute, you're going to see how she dialed in to her very specific person and she spoke to them like she was in their face looking in their eyes. Okay, who are we for? We cannot be for everyone. We can't. If you watch Shark Tank and they are talking about your— we need your audience to be more broad, that's Shark Tank. It costs millions to go after a broad audience. The riches are in the niches. We're going to talk about that. And number 3, number 3 reason why launches fail is that your engagement is low. Low number of followers, low number of engagement, low number all across the board. We have to engage, we have to connect. And that's why I brought Brittany here today. She's made it. She's here. I'm going to bring her to the stage right here. Thank you, Brittany. I told them you were stuck in traffic and I was going to just— I was going to go solo.

I mean, I'm used to that. But if you could beg to invent, it would be teleportation. When I tell you, as a small business owner, if I could just judge things off to the universe, including myself, that would be amazing.

If anyone could invent that, I'm pretty sure it's you. So let's get on it, Brittany. If you need an investor, you just call me. Okay?

Okay.

Let me introduce you to Brittany Brown. Brittany came into my world officially when I opened her Brain Fetti box. She submitted her box for review inside Launch Your Box and I selected it one month and I was opening that box for the first time. It's much like Katie's story yesterday. Like, I really realized who she was, what she was doing and how amazing it was when I opened her box because I could see what she was creating by just opening that box, having never talked to her, having never met her. And I was so intrigued. I followed her on TikTok that day. And my whole world exploded with excitement for her. And so when I opened her box, it all became clear to me on who she was for. And then when I followed her on TikTok, I knew exactly why. So Brittany, why don't you introduce yourself, tell them a little bit about the Brain Fetti Box, and then we're going to take them back to 2020 and how the whole thing got started.

Sure. So my name is Brittany Brown. I am a mom of 5. 5 neurodivergent kids, which is an important point in all of it. Their ages 12 to 6. So there's quite a range in there. I'm a small business owner, obviously. I—

wait a minute. I just want to make sure everyone clearly understood what you just said. You have 5 children ages 6 to 12 and all neurodivergent.

They are. Okay, so, and what that means— so if you don't know what neurodivergent means, neurodivergent is basically a brain classification that encompasses almost any differentiation in brain development. So that can be autism, ADHD, OCD, Tourette's, um, there are others, but most of the ones that aren't necessarily— they are defined as a disability but aren't necessarily something that our universe sees as a disability, but does present differentiations in learning, differentiations in how you see the world, creativity, a whole bunch of other things. So I parent those children as well as myself on any given day, and my husband, to be very fair, let's, let's be real. And then I have a team of 10. I live in Des Moines, Iowa. We started initially as a planner company. We call our warehouse the Planner Factory, even though that's a fraction of what we do now. But I started by— I was on TikTok doing things and developed an ADHD planner for myself and posted about it, and it blew up.

Okay, let's go back just a little bit further. Let's go back a little bit further. Okay, so Brittany was a photographer.

I was.

And we— this thing happened in 2020. We all probably have heard of it, and she shut her business down and she went to TikTok.

Why?

Tell me why you turned to TikTok.

It was— I was bored. Like, I didn't— I have been— anybody that has been a small business owner or artist or whatever in any way knows how much you're cramming into everyday life. And when my entire world shut down, including but not limited to my career, my kids being home with me when they are sensory seekers— I'm a sensory avoider— I needed an outlet that had nothing to do with my house or my kids. And so I really started watching TikToks first, much like a lot of people did. You just kind of get sucked in, it's something to do. And then I started posting, and I did not even initially start posting about ADHD stuff. My diagnosis came a little bit later that year, but I was posting about my kids, I was posting about what we do just as people, and people identified with that. People identified with some— seeing somebody else who looked very normal, quote unquote, but was, you know, using tips and tricks and strategies to get through their day. And that's, that's how I started building my audience was inadvertently. It was not me.

You weren't even thinking about building a business. You were just showing up as you, you had been using TikTok to learn more about ADHD. Um, and you were now engaging and you were realizing there's this whole community of adults with ADHD while you were dealing with it with your children, but not only, and then realizing that, you know what, I think I have this too. Right. And you were able to start connecting.

It was, it was quite the revelation. And interestingly, my mom ended up getting diagnosed a month before I did. Um, it was that same summer, but so I've learned after many years of research and studying that so often ADHD and autistic humans are— they build this world around them to get through, like, to just get through their days, to be able to function. We, we do really well with routine. We do really well with structure. We do really well, and we don't necessarily love it, but we tend to build these things, systems around us to be able to do what needs to be done. We still live in the world we live in. It doesn't matter if your brain likes it or not. You, you want to to do the things, you have to find ways to do them. And when all of that comes crashing down, i.e., the pandemic, um, we don't do so hot, as it turns out.

It's kind of a hot mess, aren't we?

A little bit intense around here. So that was— I mean, I had always known my brain was different, but until all of my support structures had been taken away, I, I just thought I was quirky. And then we started looking a little more in depth when I had a massive mental breakdown, basically, and figured out a few things. And, and honestly, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

So, so this all started with a planner. So you were looking— you've got kids at home, you're, you're trying to figure out this life routine and all the things you've got to remember and keep track of, and you're looking for a planner that really fits your brain, and you can't find something that is like, this is not going to work for me, like I need something that's this, this, and this. And you're like, you know what, I'm gonna make that. I'm at home, I'm not doing nothing, I, I don't have a job right now, I'm gonna make myself a planner. And what happened?

I posted the— I thought about doing it starting at about September and did not actually do it until January, which is very on brand for me. Um, I was still posting on TikTok this whole time, but ultimately had just kind of been doing stuff and hanging out. And I posted this planner and I literally just posted it, was like, hey, do you guys like this? If you want the digital file, I'll, you know, shoot it to you, just email me and I'll send it to you. And within 3 days I had more than 1,000 orders and a demand for an actual physical planner. I had hired a good girlfriend of mine who had done photo editing for me to be my assistant because I didn't— I, we had so much to do and no way to do it. I found a printer locally that could print them for me because there was a demand for a physical version. I had to figure out how to do shipping. I had to figure out how to, where to do this because I didn't need my 5 kids with their sticky jam hands all over my beautiful white planners. And so So I had another friend that I had met actually at a speaking engagement many years ago, and she's like, hey, we signed on this studio space March of 2020. It's been sitting empty. Do you want to just lease it from us? Because we're not ready to go back to full-time yet. I was like, yes, yes, please. Where do you want money? I'll send it right now.

And you needed the space because all these planners were about to show up at your house, right?

Yep. It was aggressive. So within a week, I had a studio, an assistant. And a full-fledged business. Like, it was 100% off the ground. So yeah, that happened.

That happened. And that, that puts you into like the planner space that you never expected to be in. You didn't plan, ironically, planner space. And so this is all fun and you're doing this for a little while, and then there's the box thing happens. The box thing.

So we Yeah, we— I had had— okay, so we had kind of branched into other things based on what our, our niche had asked for, because ultimately people are constantly looking for different types of resources, tools, tips, tricks, all of these things. And so there's a lot of, there's a lot of infantiling that happens with ADHD because people never used to think that it was like grown-up situation or a grown-up disorder. And it very much is. It very much affects you the entirety of the time that you have it. If you're alive, it actually gets a lot worse as you get older. When you hit menopause, it increases, which is why now a lot of women in their 50s and 60s are actually getting diagnosed, because there's a lot more research that didn't used to exist. And like my mom, when she was She's 57, I'm 37. When she was young, there was no ADHD, there was barely even autism. And so a lot of these things are now coming back full circle. So all that to say, lots of people asking for different resources, looking for things that are much more adult, looking for things that are more aesthetic, looking for things that are more like actually shit they like to buy, honestly, versus like little kids stuff. And so I had a couple of different followers we actually had released a fidget bag for kiddos, and then we did kind of a more upscale one for adults. And then I had multiple people when we released the adult one be like, did you ever think about doing a subscription box just filled with stuff for ADHD humans, whether it's tools or tips or tricks or fidgets or sensory things or whatever? And I kind of just like looked around and I was like, well, No, but I could. I could do that. I don't know. I guess I'll figure it out. So my sister is my— she likes to call me the Brittany Wrangler because she has to deal with everybody else outside of the world that isn't me. Basically, she ends up translating my crazy ideas into actual things. But she sat down and she built me out a timeline and we worked through all of that. Figured out what we needed to do. And I think we had initially planned to do, it was either 50 or 100 boxes. And our, I was like, we're just gonna do that many. That's gonna be fine. We're just gonna do that. And we sold 200, I think, of our first ones. Like release that, that was just to our email list. Like that was—

And wasn't it like so fast? Like in like an hour or something, wasn't it?

It was very swift. It was very fast. It was very, I think it was maybe 2 or 3 hours, but it was, okay.

I remember it was so fast.

It was very fast and it was just our email list. I had not even posted it on TikTok yet. I had not done anything. And then I think I posted on TikTok and we sold, I wanna say we were to 500.

Yeah. Like very fast.

You were very fast. And so we did like a round 2 basically because we're a bimonthly, so we're every other month. So basically we ended up doing like the next month sent the next round of boxes because we had to source all the stuff. We didn't have any of it. So yeah, that was, that was, that was a, that was a new activity that we—

I believe I got your first or second box.

I think it was our second one, but it was very close to that. It was first.

Yeah, it was right in the beginning. And I opened this box not really knowing exactly what to expect. Um, I don't have ADHD, but I have a son. He'll be 18, um, next week. And so he has ADHD, and we have dealt with it. Since he was very small, like 3 or 4 years old. His whole life.

You know, by 3 or 4, if you know what you're looking for.

Yes. And so, and I didn't know what I was looking for, but luckily his caregiver did. And, and it was devastating to me at that point because I was like, no, there's nothing wrong with my child. You know, like it was my first kid. Like, what do you mean there's something wrong with my kid? And it was interesting because I was devastated in that moment. But the more I read about it and the more I learned about it, I just learned that he was different and he learned different ways and he needed different things and he just, he just processed things in different ways. And once I could wrap my head around his differences to me, I knew how to give him that information. I knew how he could handle information, how he processed information. So when I opened Brittany's box, I was like, oh my gosh, this is son. Like, this box is my son. And it was so clear to me who your box was for, and anyone that was— that had any neurodivergence was really going to find themselves in this box. And that's what made it so special. It was like, nothing's wrong with me. I am normal. This is for me because I'm special, not different. And that's the feeling I got from your box because it had some fun fidgety things. It had some, I think it was maybe water intake or something that, that month. That was so long ago. I don't even know why I remember that. I don't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday, Brittany. But it had like, it had like reminders of like to drink your water. And I remember like, I, my son will go all day without drinking water and then he'll be like, oh, I haven't drank water. And he'll drink 5 bottles of water all at once. And then yes, and so I was like, oh my gosh, this is so him. You know, everything that I was pulling out of this box was like, oh my gosh, this makes sense. And, um, and I was so impressed by this box. And then there was something that I saw in your box that I hadn't seen really. I'd seen it one time before but not in this way. And I was like, this is genius, when you put a teaser for the next box in the box. So there was a teaser in that box, and I can't remember exactly what it was, but I remember it was Pride colors. And I remember that that was the next box you were doing. It was going to be all about Pride, and the— had the— everything was like Pride themed in that box. And there was a little— maybe it was sticky notes or something, or a keychain or something. Yeah. And it was Pride colors. I'm like, oh. And it said something about, this is your sneak peek for the next box, or something. So I knew what it was for, and I was like, Oh, the next box is going to be all about Pride. And, and it was genius because it built in instant retention. Now I wanted the next box. Now I had a sneak peek into the next one in the current box that I had just opened. And I thought it was such a genius thing that you did. And I will never— clearly, I will never forget that because I feel like that was 3 years ago. But it was one of the best things. And I featured Brittany in Chapter 3. Because of the way that she built her audience. Okay, let's go back to what Brittany— I told them something before you got here. Let's go back to page 31, and I underlined, build an audience first, build your business second. So I want you to put yourself in the same mindset that Brittany put herself into back in 2020. She actually was not even intending to build a business nor build an audience. She was just showing up on TikTok as herself, finding information, connecting with people, and having an outlet for herself. And in turn, that built this incredible community of like-minded people. And when she just simply shared something she made for herself, it turned into 1,000 orders immediately, like the quickest turnaround time you could ever think of. And instantly, in that moment, she became a new business owner. She didn't have to worry about where her income was going to come from. She didn't have to worry about when the photography industry was going to come back to life. She instantly turned her passion, her knowledge, her, you know, curiosity for information into this community building where she built this audience, and then she built the business. It started with the planner, it quickly turned to the box, and then I know it's turned into a store and all kinds of e-commerce stuff and like the funniest, snarkiest, trendiest stuff you could find. Um, it has turned into so much more. Tell me about all the other things that you're doing now with this whole concept in mind.

Right. So we have gone through iterations of things, and I think that's really important to remember as you're building your box and your businesses, that if you become so married to the initial idea that you had, you're going to miss opportunities for the future. And I think that that is a really, really vital thing.

You've got to write this quote down. Everybody just turn to page— there's a blank page on page 28. Okay, write that. What's that quote again? If you're married—

if you're so married to what you started with, you're going to miss opportunities for the future.

You're so married to what you started with, you are going to miss opportunities In the future. Brittany Brown.

Look at it right there. Killing it.

Hey, you know what? It's now officially on page 28 of One Box at a Time. It's right there. Love it. But it's the truth, right?

Truth. It's the truth. Because there are things that we've had that we've started and then had to let go. So we did a really cool, um, we actually started a subscription, like a book club subscription that we did. We make blind date with a book. So ADHD humans notoriously struggle to pick their next book, but they do know what vibe they like. So we picked a bunch every month and they could pick their own genre. And we make a little card, like a library card that sits inside of it that says, this is an adventure tale about a girl that goes to blah, blah, blah. And then we decorate it with clues or whatever, and then it's wrapped in brown paper and sealed with a wax seal, and then we ship it off to them with a little tea and a bookmark and a sticker. And we made a second subscription out of that. And so that— I mean, it's— we found ways to take the pieces of the things that our people are missing, our niche, and then using them to do something different with it. And so, yeah, we did that for about a year. Our last one will be this December because we have other things we want to do. And I think that it is important for us know when to say when with a thing so that we're able to go and do other things.

So yeah, I think it's so complimentary, Brittany, to Katie's story yesterday. It was her second subscription that outgrew the first subscription, right? Because she really leaned into what she was passionate about, what people were wanting from her, and she wasn't married to just having that one subscription with her paper company. She decided to make the literary book box, which has exploded. She has 1,200 subscribers now, and that would have never happened if she just kept thinking, I'm gonna make this work, I'm gonna make this work, I'm gonna make this work. And that is such a good quote. Why didn't we put this in the book? Why didn't you tell me this before? In the book now, it's in the book now. Um, but it's so true. So we have to get out of this idea that just because we decide to do something, that we're stuck doing it for the rest No, and that's so—

it's one of the pieces. It's actually really, really common for ADHD people because we find kind of this realm where we know we exist and we're doing it right and we're doing it well. It can be really hard to let go of things because you've put so much energy and effort into it. And I hear this a lot too from people, this like, well, this didn't work for me, so nothing can work for me. That's— I'm here to give you permission right now. To drop anything that is not working for you so that you have the emotional, mental, and physical capacity to pick up something that does work for you. Because it is so hard to give up something that you feel like you've wasted your time on, but it's even harder to keep wasting your time knowing you're wasting your time.

I feel like that's the same with relationships too, like with relationships. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go.

Let it go. It's important.

Yes. Yes. And Lexi says same with her bridesmaids proposal boxes. It's the same scenario. So let's talk a little bit about— let's go to our newbie levels. Yes. We're newbies. We've got to focus on building our audience before we even can sell a thing. What are your tips or advice for them as they're diving into the audience building stage of their business?

1000%. So one of my super sweet skills, if you will, is I can have a 5-minute conversation with anybody and tell them 25 TikToks they can make based on what, what people will love that they do. And people are always, flabbergasted at the things that other people find interesting about them. And that's because you're around your own shit every day, guys. Like, that's because you see your processes and your systems in your life every day. So it doesn't seem that interesting to you. But if you take a step back and you think about, okay, what are the things that I do that people are going to actually care about? You're a terrible judge of your own. You have to ask the people around you. Ask your friends, ask your family, ask your enemies. I don't care. Ask whoever you want. Put it on your socials and say, okay, if you had to pick like 10 things that you think that I do that you would love to know more about, what would they be? People will respond. First of all, people love to hear themselves talk.

Okay, first of all, everybody needs to go make this post today, whether it's on your personal page or your business page, what are 10 things about me— what'd you say—

that you would love to know more about what I do, or like see me do, or whatever? Because there will be things that you have no— you're like, really, you care about that? So for example, we, um, when we were in the thick of Planner Build— this is pre-box, obviously— uh, we had found a really incredible local partner to do our printing with. And his name is Tyler, and he's this millennial guy that's incredible. Typically, I work primarily with women because I have big feelings about that. But Tyler was just one of those people that, like, he's worth working with. Like, he was worth partnering with in this situation. And I basically said, hey, this is going to sound weird, but can I just come to your warehouse and video you guys doing my planner, like the process of like printing and assembling it. And he's like, yeah, that's fine. And that is one of— easily one of my most viral videos. I mean, millions of views on it. They're literally— nothing cool happened. And it is the printer printing the things, and then there's some chopping and there's some gluing, and it's like a whole thing. People love to see a process.

Yes.

And that is in every situation known to man. That is packing, that is shipping, that is creating, that is Um, that's packing your kids' lunches. That's literally anything. And a lot of my best, highest— oh, literally all of my highest videos are me doing my girls' hair and talking about— which is a whole thing. Sarah knows this. She has kids that are Black. I have Black kids, and Black hair is a whole other thing too on top of it. But I talk about my kids or, you know, situations or whatever while I was doing their hair. So It always started with, on Sundays we do hair, and then I would voiceover and literally just have a video pointed at me doing my girls' hair. Like, that's all that it is. And I have one that I know has, I think—

So you're just doing the hair, and then after the video you're doing a voiceover of the story or whatever you want to talk about?

And splice. Super easy. Literally just like talked over it. That, that was it. I didn't do it.

What about this? Think about just folding boxes. It's a task we have to do. We have to fold boxes or label them, like labeling boxes.

Like, people love watching that. It's why—

just do it on a little bit faster speed so people aren't bored. But you could literally have a camera of folding boxes, and then you could be talking about how this idea of your subscription box came to life. You could be talking about, um, what your theme is for the next month. You could be talking about something that's happened in your business, um, that you want to share. You could be talking about anything with a little bit of a B-roll.

Yep. Also, my other biggest tip: everything is content. Everything is content. Everything is content. Put your video on for anything you or your team or your helpers or anybody under the sun is doing, because you never know when you're going to need it later. B-roll especially.

Everything is content. And Brittany, I think they need some examples, so I need you to give them your TikTok handle so they can go check it out.

Please feel free. It's @imperfectinspiration, and that's our stuff on almost everything. But yeah, I have about 615,000 followers or something close to that.

No, 615,000 followers. I think I have 615 followers on TikTok. So we'll just—

There are a few friends in there.

It's fine. Let's leave it at that. Let's talk one more thing I want to ask you about before I let you go. If I'm at— I'm 10 years in, right?

Yeah.

I know that I have to keep building my audience every single day.

I have to remember this, for the record. I have to remember to keep building my audience.

So how do, how do we continue to grow our audience every month, every week, every day? What are tips for people like us that are in the business a little bit further along? How do we keep showing up like that?

So I'm gonna tell you what I did.

I hired a helper, okay?

I hired my incredible new social media assistant, Abby Jo. She is, when I say, the cutest damn thing I've ever seen in my life. She is a youth. She knows how to TikTok. It's amazing because I got burned out.

That is a lot.

Content creation is not an easy job. It is exhausting. The editing of dealing with all that— I'm not going to pretend to you guys that it's easy or simple to post as often as the algorithm really wants you to be posting, that would be straight lies. Like, it is hard, it is exhausting, it is a lot to have to come up with things all the time. So the more you're able to, um, reutilize things either from people that are helping you or people that— things that you've already created and you find new ways to repurpose them, um, finding new ways. So a lot of times I'll just be scrolling on TikTok and I'll save anything that I think I can re-judge in a way that makes sense for me or my market or my—

some inspiration, right? Like, sometimes we're just like, I don't even know what I'm gonna talk about or do today. But if you see somebody else do something, that always gives me inspiration on what I can create and what I can post.

Correct. And I think there's a quote from, I'm not gonna remember this, but it's something to the effect of, if you feel inspirational, write. If you feel uninspired, read. And I actually think that that applies a lot to creators in any realm, any small business owners, if you're feeling inspired, make something, design something, create something, start something. If you're feeling uninspired, go see what everybody else is doing. It's not against the rules to see how to— you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can go see what everybody else is doing and see if there's a way to shift it and reapply it back to what you're doing and make it valuable for your market.

I love that. I love that, Brittany. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm super, super proud of you. I can't wait to see what's next for you. And go check out Chapter 3. You'll hear it.

I will be at Sub Summit this year. I'm coming. So I don't know if I'm doing anything other than just attending. Obviously, I'll hang out with Sarah. But if you would like to meet me, I will be there. I already said.

Well, I think that I might have some people I can talk to about getting you on to chat with or whatever. Bring your book, Brittany. So I could sign it for you when you come to Sub Summit. But you'll learn more about Brittany in chapter 3. You'll learn a lot about building your audience. There's so much tactical information in chapter 3. We have to start now. It's never too early and we have to keep doing it over and over and over again. So let's go build our audiences so we can launch the things. All right. Thank you, Brittany. Thanks for hanging out with me. You guys have a great weekend and I'll see you back on Monday. Bye guys. Bye.