#31 - Learn TikTok with Hans finally complete!

What I’m watching

I’m slowly starting prep for my upcoming talk at Kings Real Estate Society and going through old videos and resources I’ve come across. One of these is a YouTube video titled: ‘Changed by a tyre’ which is a winning speech at a public speaking competition. Very entertaining, funny, inspiring and educational at the same time.

Resource of the week

It’s a big relief to finally finish my Skillshare class on starting your own business oriented/education TikTok channel. It ended up taking 3 times longer than I had scheduled. It’s completely free and you get a one-month Skillshare membership via the link. It’s not a long class but it’s the distillation of everything I’ve learnt from starting a TikTok channel from zero to where it is now. I started with no social media experience so it’s perfect for beginners, if it’s something you’ve been thinking about, now’s the chance!

In my view, if social media is used correctly, it’s one of the most accessible, low-cost, high-potential ways for the average person to build a second income stream(s) and a business. There are resources like Notion templates, a list of hooks etc. Let me know what you think of it!

Quote

Seek out the moments when you felt your heart move. When something changed forever, even if that moment seems minuscule compared to the rest of the story. That will be your five-second moment. Until you have it, you don’t have a story. When you find it, you’re ready to begin crafting your story.

Matthew Dicks - Storyworthy

Thoughts

After the final push for my Skillshare class, I intentionally gave myself this week to take a step back and recharge my batteries. Just as well, the number of announcements, u-turns and broken promises from the government on economic policies has been pretty unprecedented. Understandably a lot of people are confused about what to do with their money amid inflation, rising interest rates, and a cost of living crisis.

One thing I would say is that while it’s true you don’t want to be holding cash for long periods of time due to erosion from inflation, it’s not an excuse to be reckless with your money. Even with current rates of inflation, holding on and giving things a chance to settle for a few months won’t have a big effect from inflation in the grand scheme of things. With the interest rates where they are now, it’s very difficult to make the numbers work for BTL properties, so I’m personally holding off also.

My social media journey so far (briefly)

I started my TikTok channel over a year ago now at the end of Aug last year. I didn't have a specific plan longer term (I still don't), but I knew that no other platform exists that could provide a creator starting out such a massive potential reach. At the time, I had read that contrary to popular beliefs, a lot of businesses fail to take off not because they don't have enough funding, or their product isn't good enough or they need to spend more on the app or website or marketing. It's getting the first 100 customers and that vital cash flow to validate and build upon. Having an engaged following goes a long way towards that, you get feedback in real-time and you learn what your audience wants.

My philosophy has always been to provide as much value as I can, it's the process of building trust, it takes time to do it, but no time at all to ruin it. One creator mentioned that providing high-value free content that helps people is like depositing money in a bank account, whereas promoting products, and selling stuff is like withdrawing. At some point, you want to think about monetising but only if you can provide many more times that in value, which is something I try to follow. For example, I had an ad agency reach out asking me to promote a printer, I don't particularly think flogging a printer that doesn't particularly benefit my audience like a used car salesman on TikTok will do my credibility much good! So a bit like investing, thinking longer term and saying no to a lot of these requests.

In this regard, the more you give the more inadvertently comes your way. I've made great connections with fellow creators, collabs, event invitations, started a coaching/consultancy business solely through TikTok, and more recently a speaking engagement after a year on the platform.

So much of it is about mindset. The thing that tipped me to start last year was a slight shift. I shifted from my younger self, who was focused on wanting to own materialistic things and how to obtain them to learning to ask myself 'do you want to be someone who consumes more or creates more?'

Have you got any side hustles, you're working on? Always interested to learn more about the business side of things! Hit reply to let me know. Otherwise have a good week.

Hans