How Creating Content on TikTok Can Help Grow the Business

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelangi.com and on this week's Art of passive income podcast, I've got a treat. It is Melissa Hughes. And if you're not familiar with Melissa, you probably don't watch the Kelly Clarkson show because she's been on there. But she's a tick tock influencer, an international speaker, a podcaster and best selling author. She's been booked twice the Kelly Clarkson show and featured for the New York Times bestseller Primal Scream on NBC. She has over 256,000 followers on Tik Tok and over 1 million likes. She is the bestselling author for she can Laugh, a guide to living emotionally, physically and spiritually well. And her first children's book, mommy loves you when both published by Dinosaur Publishing House. And she's the CEO of a rise social media agency. We're going to talk all about how we can start using TikTok to sell more land and friends with Dave and Jess Parmerly who introduced me to Melissa Shout out. So they're killing it in the land business. Melissa, welcome.

Thank you so much. It's awesome to be here.

Okay, so Melissa, your story is really kind of crazy. Can you walk us through how you became an accidental TikTok star?

Sure. So my husband and I, we had church planted. We went over to the UK and started a church in 2015. And I don't know if you ever had this experience, Mark, where you're like, yeah, I'm gonna do this thing and all my dreams are gonna come true and this is gonna be amazing. Well, what ended up happening was about a month after moving there, he got into a really bad car accident. And instead of moving to this like, thriving city in Bristol, England, we ended up living in a valley on a cemetery in Wales. And we lived there for four years and planted this church. It was a challenging time. There was a lot of good things that came out of it, but it was a really difficult time.

Yeah.

And when we moved home, Covid happened. We. I don't know if you've ever moved transatlantically, but you gotta get yourself set up. You gotta get a house, you got to get forks, you got to get couch plates, all the things. And so I got a job working in childcare. And I was really at this place kind of like, man, like that thing didn't end up going according to plan. Now I have this thing. I don't really like this thing, but I don't know what the next Thing is, and so I was praying one day, and I just said, God, you know, what's the next step? And I truly felt like he asked me, what do you want to do? And I said, well, I feel like I'm good at talking, so if I could just have a job where I could talk to people all day, that would be perfect. And about a month later, I felt, like, this desire and this feeling that I should start posting videos online, which was random, and so talked to my husband about it. We prayed, and if this is something I should do, that God would just make it clear. And five days later, I uploaded this video on TikTok, just trying to figure out how to even post. And the next morning, I woke up, and that video had gotten 22 million views. And I ended up on the Kelly Clarkson show. And so that's how I went accidentally, truly accidentally viral. And it led me to this whole journey of entrepreneurship.

That is incredible. And so you go on the Kelly Clarkson show, and now you're kind of famous. How. How does it change your life from there?

Yeah, it completely changed my life because it started, first of all, it showed me a. A different path that, like, wow, people actually can make money by posting videos. And there are two routes. You could go the influencer route, or you can leverage social media to market what you do and to lead them into your business. And so I really, like, just started learning about all of this. And obviously, being on the Kelly Clarkson show was a really amazing opportunity that brought more people to my platform. But it really was like a life change, a career change, a completely different path that I never expected to go down, but it's been really, really awesome.

That's incredible. Okay, so when. When I think about TikTok, I think my kids, I don't think about adults. I think adults are on, like, Facebook or LinkedIn. And so to market my land on TikTok, I just think, well, no one's gonna be able to afford my land on TikTok or even look at it. So tell me, why TikTok? And am I. Am I thinking about this wrong?

Yes. Short answer is yes. So let me ask you a question, mark. Do you like to be entertained?

Yes.

Okay. And then TikTok is truly a platform that people. People find to be so entertaining. And it blew up during COVID because the videos were. Were funny, right? They were, like, just funny viral videos. And so it ended up becoming a platform that not only young people use, but older people started getting on and started sharing valuable content right around, like, their passions. Around land, how to make passive income. And so to think that it's only a platform for young people, that is how it started. And that's how it started with Facebook, that's how it started with Instagram, and that's how it started with TikTok. But if you look at the trends, Facebook now has a bunch of more mature people there. Instagram has also an audience of business older people.

And.

And TikTok is the same. Is the same thing. So, yes, there is. Your ideal audience is on TikTok, and it is a very viable platform to sell land.

Okay, so coach me on this, because I would think that there's. There's some. There's some things like, some like. Like an. Like an algorithm, if you will, for working on or like posting a video on TikTok that will get views, that will get attention. And then once I get that, how do I monetize it?

Yeah, these are such good questions. So the challenge is, I think a lot of people, when they think of, like, putting themselves out there or creating a video, it feels really scary because they just don't know what to say or how to say it.

So.

So if I were to coach you, I would say think about a pain point or a desire that your audience has and lead with that. So, like, your podcast is passive income. So imagine opening up a video that the first thing that someone says is, I want to teach you how to make passive income so you can achieve financial freedom for your family. And I'm going to show you three easy steps how to do that. If you saw that video, and I'm sure your audience right now, because that's what they're interested in learning about, they'd be like, oh, my, I want to watch this. I want to watch this video. I want to know the three easy steps on how I can achieve financial freedom. So when you're creating a video that is optimized, that could have the potential to go viral, it either have to be very educational around a pain point or a passion or, sorry, a desire or very entertaining, right? Just silly, funny, dumb. Something dumb that happened. Kind of like my video that went viral. It was a mom fail. It was something I caught on camera, which was like America's Funniest Home Videos. So one of the two is usually how a video does really well. So if you're going to create content, think about your audience and what they really want to learn, and you open the video with what's called a hook or something that is really enticing to your audience. So that they watch the video. Because the number one metric for a video to do well, to go viral is watch time. So if you can get them to watch the video, the whole thing, the algorithm thinks it's good content and wants to keep people on the platform and they push it out to a bigger audience that then if it continues to garner that attention, it gets viral.

I see. Okay. The way I like to think is I can always make more money. I can't get more time. And so do I really want to invest the time on TikTok and figure it out or I've got this great content, so why don't I just hire you and pay you as an influencer and say, Melissa, here's $10,000, make me 10 videos. Talking about, hey, guys, because you already have a platform, there's this podcast called Our Passive Income. I was just on it. And you know, this guy's going to teach you how to, how to build passive income without any renters, rehabs, renovations, or rodents. If this is something you're interested in, you know, click this link. He's got a, A, A free course that he's offering only to Melissa Hughes followers. Check it out. Would that be a better strategy out of the gate than me going through the. The actual work of coming up the hooks and because I have no audience, I like no one. Because people don't know like, or Trust me on TikTok. But they know like and trust you.

Yes. So this is a good conversation. And this would be like an individual conversation that you. That I have on a regular basis with entrepreneurs or business owners. Because you would want to think where, like, what's your goal in this? If you're like, I don't care. I just want leads to my business and whatever, then that might be a viable option, especially if you have the capital to invest in an influencer. But for some people, they want to be known for something, right? They want to be known for. They want to be the financial guy, or they want to be known for helping their family create financial freedom. And that's where we start having a conversation about building your personal brand. Where people want a business, but they also want to, like, teach life lessons. They want to become a thought leader in their industry. And so that's where you either are the face of your content and you hire an agency like mine that does all the hard work and posts for you and creates the content because you're like, no, I do. I want people to know that this is a message that's coming from me. I want to start speaking on stage. I want to start getting booked on more podcasts. Like, I don't. My business is one part, but I want it to be big, bigger than that. So those are like some conversations that you'd want to have with somebody. Be like, what's your. What's your goal? What's your why in this whole thing? And then you devise a strategy from that.

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. My, my buddy Sharon Srivatsa likes to say that the most efficient business model is fame. And it's true. We see it all the time. And so I think that it's really interesting that if you're listening to this, that probably is going to be a more viable option than my, you know, easy button idea. But you could probably do both in a sense where you could build your followers more quickly if you had influencers talking about you as well as generating your own content. So it's not an either or. It could be both. Both. But you would say when you're first starting out, have something you're passionate about, have something to say, have something valuable to say. Now my question is, well, how am I going to give out something valuable in 15 seconds?

Oh, you know what, it is so funny because right now we're on a podcast, so this is long form content. And it's great because we open it up and it's chat, chat, chat, tell me your story. Right? It's like we have some time together, but then for 15 seconds it's just a learning. I hope your listeners can hear this because people will try to create the content and just get really frustrated with it and want to stop. But it truly is just a skill of learning a different style of communication where you really do think, okay, what's the hook? Or what's the, the most desired result in this video? I'm going to share that first and then give the details at the end. Kind of like how a journalist writes. They give the headline and then as the article continues, the details come in the end. That is actually how you communicate in video. And you just have to be a better communicator, use less words and be more succinct. So I would say more Mark. That learning video content has actually made me a better communicator because I know how to say less better.

Kind of brilliant. Okay, so this is really interesting. Now I've got a piece of land that I want to sell and it's, let's say it's $200 down, $200 a month and I've got. What's the most time I could talk on TikTok?

They've bumped. They've bumped it up to 10 minutes, but I would say, yeah, I would say it's still a short form platform, so up to a minute and a half, I think is good. But you can also go live where if you wanted a longer time with your followers, going live on TikTok is an amazing place to, like, explain it, talk about it, say, here's the link to buy it.

Okay, so for somebody that wants to sell land, would you recommend that they spend some time? They have to come up with a hook and then they have to have images, perhaps, or video of their land and then a clear call to action.

Yeah, yeah. They even don't necessarily need videos of their land or anything like that. At the end of the day, people follow a person, they fall in love with the person. So, like, that know, like. And trust factor. That's why video is so powerful. Cause they're like, oh, it's Mark again. Mark's so funny. I love Mark. He's so great. And they start to connect with you that they're like, whatever Mark puts out there, I want to buy it because I just think Mark's amazing. That's the power of a personal brand. So if somebody's wanting to get started, I would recommend that they would think about, like, man, why would, like, I'll be honest, like, why would I want to buy land? What's land going to do for me? Maybe it's the psycho, not the demographic, the psychographic of the person that it's like they want to feel like they own a part of, you know, their family legacy. Right? They're interested in building a family legacy. They love America. They want to invest in America. Like, what's the psychographic? What's the. The why behind what? And then you start talking about that and saying, well, you know what? You want to know how you're going to do that? You're going to buy land because land is going to create passive income. It's going to create a legacy for your family. It's way easier than investing in real estate with renters and renovations. Who wants that? But land, it's a buy and a sell and you're done. I mean, I'm. I'm guessing, right?

Yeah. No, Melissa, this is great. And so, Anton, if you're listening to this right now on my team, can you please repurpose what Melissa just said? And we're gonna upload it to TikTok and so now you know I'm. I'm joking, but is that a viable strategy? Is I'm doing long form and then could I go to someone like you and say, okay, how can we make this short form? Or is that like, look? No, you've gotta, like, TikTok is its own thing. You really don't want to repurpose it?

No, I think it's both. I think it's both. A lot of people are repurposing the way that you repurpose, though. Like, that's the thing. Is anyone that's like, oh, I'll just repurpose my content? Well, you have to lead with that hook. And I just want to take a moment to really emphasize that, because the reason why a hook is valuable isn't to be gimmicky or anything like that. It's because immediately people decide if they're going to watch your content within the first three to five seconds of watching it. And all that hook is meant to do is to show is this video for them or not. So, for example, if I have really frizzy hair, okay, I have frizzy, ugly, curly hair, and I just want smooth curls, and I open up a video and I see this person that's like, I'm going to teach you how to have smooth, curly hair in three seconds. I'm going to be like, that solves a massive problem for me. I'm totally watching this video. So it's really thinking about, like, what are the challenges or the massive desires that your target audience has? And open up the video and talk about that and really think about, like, man, I want to serve somebody today. I want to help. I want to help somebody out. What am I going to talk about? And when you come at it with that perspective, you are much more likely to have a better following. Because people are like, every time I come to this page, the content, super valuable.

I love it. All right? Because I'm so ambitiously lazy. This is my last question before we go to the tip of the week. Could I go to chat GPT and say, here's. Here's my ideal buyer. This is what they are they're looking for. I'm going on TikTok. Write me 40 hooks that are three to five seconds long that will appeal to my ideal buyer. Is it good enough or is it like, no, it's a good start, but I wouldn't use it.

Mark. I would say you're not lazy. You're leveraged. You're leveraging amazing tools that help make you more efficient business owner. That's a brilliant idea. Yes. Typing into chatgpt, and I mean, you know, looking at the hooks and putting it in your own words. Right? Because sometimes ChatGPT uses really strange, unnatural language, whereas the way that you're honestly effective on the platform is by being yourself. And what's funny is a lot of people struggle to do that on video. Even when I first started, I remember creating videos and they weren't doing well. This was after Kelly Clarkson. And one day I called my husband and he's like, hey, babe. And I was like, hey. He's like, what's wrong? I was like, I just. I feel like I'm putting in all this effort creating content. It's not doing well. I don't know why. He goes, well, I'll tell you why. I said why. He goes, oh, your content sucks. That was exactly what he said to me. And I said, does it? He goes, yeah, you've got such a great personality and it's not coming through on camera. You just gotta loosen up. And I didn't realize that I was coming across so stiff. So, yes to the chat GBT prompts. But then, like, really practice, like, talk to the camera like you're talking to your best friend. And that was the advice my husband gave me. And I practiced that, which felt uncomfortable, and I got better.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like any other skill. It. You just have to get your reps in. And I. I'm in a mastermind group. And Evan Carmichael, I don't know, He's a big YouTube guy and he's like, got millions and millions of followers. He's just like, make it make a video a day. He's like, you make a video a day, it's going to change your life. You do, you know, 365 videos in a year. One of them, you're just going to get better and better and better. What would be your advice for TikTok? How. What. What are the reps that I would need to get it to get in, where I'd be like, okay, the probability of me going viral goes up exponentially, which could literally just change my life. And I would go on Kelly Clarkson.

You know, if you work with me, Mark, I guarantee Kelly Clarkson. I'm just kidding. The permission for your audience right now would be post bad content. Post bad content where you create it and you're like, oh, my gosh, I look terrible. I feel so cringy. Post it. Because once you, like that guy said, if you post A video every day, if that. That actually is overwhelming for some people. I started three times a week, and once I felt more comfortable, I bumped it up to five times a week and I take a break on the weekends. But that got me. I grew a following to 250,000 followers by just committing to learning a skill and just stayed consistent every day, like doing a rep. And so I would say you have to look at what your bandwidth is, right? Get really honest with yourself and think. Don't think you're gonna post three times a day and then drop off the face of the planet on month 2. Be super consistent by thinking to yourself, what can I actually give my time to? Okay, I'm committed to this skill. I wanna grow. I wanna generate leads for my business. I can do three times a week and I can genuinely commit to that. That would be better than going all out and then stopping because you've burnt yourself out. Consistency is the most important thing.

Okay, so I'm overwhelmed already. And I'm thinking, all right, I'm going to go to Melissa and she's going to coach me, and her agency is going to increase the probability of me actually being successful. So if I'm going to invest time, energy, effort, money into something, I might as well increase the probability of my success by smart cutting it and hiring someone who already knows how to do it. Yeah. So to. To do that, then, like, how does that work? Like, what do people do to. To engage with you and then what are you looking for? Like, what makes a good client? Like, you say, like mark, like, hey, sorry, pal. Your personality, not so great for TikTok. Like, stay. Stay on Facebook with the old people.

No, it would be. You actually have a great personality for TikTok, by the way, TikTok likes just like real and raw. So, like, the more yourself you are, the better you do. But essentially what I found when I first started coaching clients is I would work with somebody like you and be like, hey, can you create these, you know, three videos this week and then the next coaching call, you wouldn't do it. I got too busy, blah, blah, blah. So then I developed an agency where I'm like, okay, we're really gonna. I'm gonna hold you accountable. Now all I need you to do is get on this zoom call. I'm going to ask you questions that are pointed, that's gonna be targeted to your audience, that. Then once you're off that call, we're gonna take that zoom recording, we're gonna go turn it around into an entire month of content that's optimized. So all you give me is a couple like two hours of your time a month where I ask you questions and it's the Mark show and then we turn that around into content so that you don't have to do all of that.

Okay. I love it because I can always make more money. I can't get more time.

Right.

And so that's, that's, you know, collapsing that time combined with expertise is invaluable. So fantastic. All right, Melissa, well, your mentorship has been invaluable, but we're at that point in the podcast now where I'm going to ask you for another tip. Tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the auto passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. What do you got?

Yeah, tip of the week, man. I would say, I don't want to repeat myself, but I would truly say to post bad content because that's how it's going to feel in the beginning is you're going to be like, I hate how I look. I feel so cringy. Like, embrace the cringe and just post the video because you really don't know. Videos that I have done that I thought were so cringy have gotten tens of thousands of views and have truly been life changing. So it's cringy for you, it's great for others. Post the video. And if you do want a free resource, I have three steps to brand clarity, which is like helping people really identify some of what we talked about, their goals. If you do want to be known for something and what does that look like? And if I were to post a video, what would I say? Do I just talk about land? What do I do? That resource again, I'd be happy to give your audience.

Fantastic. Well, Melissa, that's a really good tip of the week, but it's not as good as my tip of the week, which is melissahughes.com learn more there. Go to melissahughes.com and also check out her books as well. Especially if you have kids. I. I love that mommy loves you when you know. Yeah, go ahead.

I was just gonna say that was a tick. That was my cringiest TikTok I did that got turned into a children's book.

Incredible. Incredible. Well, this is great. I, I want to just let the listeners know that today's podcast is sponsored by flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Go up that mountain land, investing quickly, safely, efficiently and not have to deal with any renters, rehabs, renovations, or rodents. I know you're thinking the tuition. What about the tuition? Ain't gonna cost you nothing guaranteed. Just do the work. 180 days or less. Learn more. Go to landgeek.com forward/training the landgeek.com training. And I can just tell by Moses face like, that's a TikTok right there. I'm going to cut this up and put it up on. Actually, there's no hook there, but I have to work on that. Hey, are you. Do you have a job you hate? Here's. Here's a way, right?

That's it. That's it, right?

Yeah, I got to work on my hooks. But anyways, we're getting value from the podcast. Do us three favors, Follow rate, review the podcast, send a screenshot of that review, support thelangic.com and I'll send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. But just do it for yourself selfishly, even if you don't want the book. Because that way Melissa will come back for a part two. But if she looks at our reviews and they suck, she won't come back. So please do that. It really helps you as well. So just be selfish about it. All right, Melissa, are we good?

We're good. Thank you so much. This has been really fun.

Thank you. And let's Freedom Ring.

Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Are you ready to learn how you can start building a passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations, or rodents? Schedule a free consultation@thelandgeek.com forward sltraining. Let freedom Ring.