Unlocking the Influencer Game: Start Small, Think Big

We live in exciting times. There has never been a better time to be an individual who wants to speak to the world and make money and be an influencer. Now, when you say the word influencer, a lot of people think, oh, you want to be a Kim Kardashian and use a bunch of sexy pictures and you think you've got millions of followers. Well, no, there are a lot of different types of influencers. You can be someone who just has a passion for still photography and you want to talk about your cameras. Well, you can be an influencer these days. Question is, what's the best way of doing it? For most people, the easiest way into this game is by making videos, sharing your passion for a particular product. Again, you may think, well, tj, who'd want to listen to me? I don't have millions and millions of followers. Well, there are a ton of programs out there. YouTube, TikTok, Amazon, Walmart, Target, they have programs. And most of them will let anybody become an influencer. All you have to do is make a video talking about the product. Now, this seems intimidating. You may be thinking, yeah, but T.J. do I have to go to New York City or London and hire a big fancy ad agency and come up with concepts and scripts and storyboards and hire. No, you don't have to do any of that. The most effective way of making a video to talk about a product so that you can get affiliate commission is to simply show the product, demonstrate it, if you can demonstrate it, and then share with people your own personal experiences. When you do that, it comes across as genuine, comes across as authentic. It stands apart from traditional TV ads because, let's face it, traditional TV ads, major broadcast networks around the world, cable networks, cable entertainment networks, what's happening to their audience? It's going down, down, down, down. Which means advertisers don't want to spend money there. What other trends are important now? Major, major department stores are closing in the United States. This week, Macy's announced it's closing. Not one store. Five stores, 10 stores, 150 stores. They are closing. Well, why? It's because people are not getting in their car, driving across town, fighting for parking, going into a store, waiting in line to buy a product. How do people buy products these days? Well, the same way you and I do. We go click when we are online. Now, that is unfortunate news for people in traditional industries like department stores and traditional media companies, but it's good news for you and me and anyone who wants to be an influencer in the modern world. So how do you start all this? My recommendation is just get your cell phone, if nothing else, hold it in one hand, hit record and show the product and talk about it. Don't worry about it being perfect, don't worry about perfect lighting, don't worry if you even say am or ah, a time or two, get something up and out. And whether you're doing it on YouTube, whether you're doing it on TikTok, whether you're doing it on Amazon experiment, nobody was great at this the first time they did it. But get in the game, because it is a game where thousands if not hundreds of thousands or millions of people are going to make money. Now, I'm not suggesting this is get rich quick, absolutely not. Research shows 97% of people who sort of hop into this influencer game give up after a few times or a few months and make almost nothing. But for people who are persistent, who stay in the game, who experiment, who, who try different things and are willing to spend time can succeed. I can't guarantee you a billion dollars or a million dollars or even $100,000. But I can guarantee that if you try this and you're looking at trends and you're experimenting and you try to improve your videos and you research what products to do, you will start to make some money. I've seen it with myself, I've seen it with others, I've seen it with my clients and my students. So there's a lot of opportunity out there. The biggest stumbling block is where do I start? What camera do I need? All you need is your cell phone. What microphone do I need? You could get fancy and have microphones. You can have a thousand dollar microphone as I do. You can have a $24 microphone that plugs into your cell phone. You could just use the cell phone built in microphone. Do not use technology as the excuse for hopping into the game. Instead, try it. What do you really have to lose? Do you really think that all of your friends and family are going to be scouring the Internet and find the one ad you did for shoes or slippers or something and then say, ah, I saw your ad. You look like a fool. I no longer have respect for you. No. Chances are they're never even going to see it. So don't worry about what other people think. Instead, focus on what is good for you and also how you can help people. If you have a particular product that has enhanced your life, that you've already told friends and family work for you and good for them, and you're Recommending it to it. What's the difference really of recommending it to a few more people? That's what good influencers do. They take products they already like, they already use, they've experienced, they know the strengths and they talk about their unique experiences with that product and they share their story. That's all it is. You don't have to over complicate this. You could write out a script, rewrite it, edit it, refine it, record it 10 different ways. You could do that. There are some people who are successful doing that. You could edit every single frame to show a different angle and a different perspective. You could do that. And there are people who are successful doing that. But you don't have to. I'm urging you, get into the game. It's wide open. All of the trend lines are focused in your favor. Traditional media consumption, way down. Traditional purchasing of products in physical stores, way down. Traditional ads on newspapers and newspaper websites, way down. Everything is flowing to online environments, online shopping experiences, social media. That's where the action is, that's where the customers are, that's where the advertisers are. That's where the affiliate advertising revenue is flowing. It's still early in the game, so hop in. Am I suggesting you quit your six figure job now to become a full time influencer? No. Start small. Maybe you just spend five minutes a day making one video, do that for a month. What's the worst thing that could happen to you if you spend five minutes a day making an influencer video? Promoting a product you believe in, that you think helps other people and is useful to other people. I would submit the risk is pretty low to you and your career. Of course you have to think about considerations. If you work for a company that sells one product and you're now doing an ad for a direct competitor. Of course someone could get upset. You've got to use judgment. But I beg you, don't take the default position of well, somewhere, somehow, some way, someone might not like this. So I'm going to sit on my hands and wait another year, see if this whole thing is real. Oh, it's real. It's definitely real. So I'm urging you. I don't care if you've got a full time job, I don't know if you have. I don't care if you have all the money in the world you want. Give the money to charity. Doesn't have to be about money. Think of it as sharing expertise you have with other people about products that will help them in their life. And that will help them make a decision on what the best product is. That's all you have to do to hop in to the influencer game today.