190: From Skeptical to Obsessed with Jaiden Hamilton

Sabrina: On today’s episode of the Shoot It Straight podcast, I have my friend Jayden Hamilton back, and this time we are talking about TikTok. Don’t skip this episode. If you have strong opinions about TikTok, I really, really encourage you to stick around and listen to what we have to say. I am very honest about my background experience with TikTok and how much I used to judge and hate and have negative feelings about the app, and then how I slowly started to dip my toe in the water and how as of 2026, I now have an account.

I am posting content five times a week, and I’m sharing my, my truthful, very real story about what’s happening over there. I’m giving you actual numbers and information, and it’s a really, really fun chat. Here’s what I want you to hear and why I think you should stick around. If you are currently showing up on Instagram and Facebook and other social media platforms, and you feel like you are screaming into the void, you feel like you are not getting traction, you feel like it is taking you forever to create a reel, and then no one sees it stick around because spoiler alert, TikTok is so much easier to both create content.

To be seen to gain traction, and it’s a lot more fun. So stick around for today’s episode. It’s a really great chat. If nothing else, you’ll hear my experience, but maybe you will be inspired to give it a try yourself. Let’s jump into the episode. Welcome to Shoot It Straight, the podcast for women building businesses and lives they actually want.

I’m Sabrina Ebhart, and around here we believe in clarity over hustle, alignment over burnout, and giving yourself permission to want more, more ease. More beauty, more income, more space to live. So if you are ready to grow without losing yourself in the process, you’re in the right place. Welcome back to the Shoot at Straight podcast.

Today we have a repeat guest and we’re talking about something brand new though. So my content strategist Jaden Hamilton, is with us. And today we are talking about TikTok. If you just heard that and had an immediate negative reaction, like, I’m done, I’m leaving. I would invite you to stick around for this chat because I absolutely used to feel that way and I’m kind of obsessed with her now.

So we’re gonna get into that. We’re gonna share data and stories and talk about what’s happening over there. But before we get too far in, my friend, will you introduce yourself to the audience?

Jaiden: Yes. Hi everyone. I’m Jaden. I’m so excited to be here and talk about, honestly, like my favorite social media platform is TikTok, so I love scrolling there.

I’m so excited to talk about it and help you see if it’s maybe like the right move for you to start using this year or how you can use it strategically. I’m excited. Thanks for having me.

Sabrina: So, a little bit of background, um, when I say that I used to have like a visceral reaction to TikTok, I mean, that was coming from me as a mom.

So this was probably honestly six years ago at this point. I had a, my oldest at that point was 12. She was a tween. She was starting to, you know, some of her friends were on TikTok. And at that point, my view of TikTok was honestly untrue and that I, I just had the wrong information, but all I had ever heard about TikTok was how bad it is for teens and how kids are over there doing horrible things and it’s a scary, scary place and all that.

And so I didn’t really look into it. I just let that judgment be what it was. I was only looking at it through the lens of TikTok is for the kids and it’s bad, so therefore we’re not gonna do it. As my daughter got older and started to experience social media, and quite frankly, like I just started hearing about it from friends, from like adult women my age, and I was like, okay, wait a minute.

I think there’s actually other things happening over there than just like this big, dark, scary world. And so I decided to hop onto TikTok and have just a quiet little creeper account where I’m not posting anything, but I’m just viewing what’s happening over there. And that was right around the time that Taylor Swift and the eras who were kicked off, which the listeners of this audience know that that is part of my origin story as a swifty.

And my TikTok use became Taylor Swift information. Like that’s all it was. I was over there and I was like, there’s a lot of Taylor Swift information over here and this is fascinating. And so I let TikTok be kind of my Taylor Swift, like going down the lore and the Easter eggs and all of the fun things.

And that’s what it was for me. And I, I realized at that point, hey, it’s actually kind of fun over here and I’m not actually aware of anything scary, uh, and I’m not being. Served up things that are not appropriate. They’re literally only showing me things that I’m interested in and I was like, this is kind of fascinating.

Fast forward to now and. I have been a TikTok user for a couple of years. I still never posted anything until this year, and my algorithm over there started to change because of different things that I was viewing, right? But it was all still very appropriate to me and my interests. It was like, oh, you have a senior in high school.

Let me send you senior and high school type content for like moms and applying to colleges. Oh, you’re exploring like needle point as a hobby. Cool, cool, cool. There’s a lot of that stuff here too. Let’s show you that, oh, you’ve started taking Pilates. Here’s the Pilates content, and it’s just, it was fascinating to me.

The more I realized it really can be a safe and fun space because their algorithm is just so good. It’s like so different than Instagram. It’s like it’s like a different planet. Yeah. This year I decided, okay, I’m not gonna be a creeper anymore. I’m gonna join the people that create content over there. I have officially been on TikTok for like right at 30 days, maybe, maybe one week beyond 30 days.

And I’m obsessed

Jaiden: also as the follower of Sabrina, I’m obsessed. Your content. Every time I see it, I’m like, yes, this is what we need.

Sabrina: I’m obsessed. And so that’s what we’re talking about today is what’s happening over there, how it might be a place for you. I’m gonna share actual numbers today because I love numbers, and I’m gonna just pull back the curtain on what’s happening with me over there.

But I’m curious, Jayden, let’s kind of start at the top. Why is TikTok different from Instagram and other platforms?

Jaiden: I mean, I just think TikTok for one, is a bit more expansive, like, and based on what you just said, like that’s really aligned. I think like your content on TikTok can go anywhere and. TikTok is way more, I think.

I think now is actually a good time to kind of talk about how the algorithms are different. So on Instagram, the algorithm is social, fa focused. It is who you follow and who you engage with. That is what content like you are going to get on your feed, and it’s mostly who you follow. I know that sometimes it feels.

Oh my gosh. Like I don’t even see content from people that I follow anymore, but that’s actually not true. Like your algorithm is very much who you follow on Instagram. Where on TikTok it’s actually interest focused. That is how the algorithm is like completely different actually. So that’s why on TikTok, when you’re interested in needle point, it starts showing you needle point videos.

And if you stay on that video, like, I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but it’s happened to me like I’ve stayed on a video for like two seconds too long and then like I go down that algorithm. Yes. Like I don’t wanna go down that one yet, but it’s way more interest focus. Like it takes what you’re interested in and feeds that to your, uh, your for you page.

Which is why content on TikTok, like if you’re new to TikTok, you’ll experience this right away. But if you’ve been on TikTok, you know what I’m talking about, where like sometimes you’ll see a, a TikTok that’s like months old and like when you go to the comments section, you’re like, why was this posted in November?

Like, that’s so weird. ’cause that would like never happen on Instagram, and it’s because of that interest focus. So I just think it’s interesting to point out those differences in the algorithm, which is also why the platforms can be good for you depending on what your goals are in life, you know?

Sabrina: Right, right.

That’s, that’s my favorite thing about TikTok, I think, is that. Instagram, you post something and within 24 hours it’s dead. Like it’s not, there is no chance for it to pick up steam after it’s posted. It either picks up steam immediately or that that sucker’s not happening. TikTok keeps going. Things don’t die over there.

Like I can give a a very specific example. I have been over there for just over 30 days. And I’ve been committed to posting five times a week. So I have 33 posts. I counted, I have 33 posts on TikTok. That is all I started with. Zero followers. I still, I still, as of right now, I only have 246 followers. Okay,

Jaiden: that’s good though.

In 30

Sabrina: days. That’s good. In 30 days, I already have 246 followers, which on Instagram would’ve taken forever.

Jaiden: Oh yeah.

Sabrina: And here’s what I want you to hear. I have already had three of my 33 posts go viral, which is. Hilarious to me. And, and the, the thing about it is the biggest one, the one that has over 39,000 views and hundreds and hundreds of comments I posted like three weeks ago.

And that sucker is still getting comments and likes and shares and saves every single day.

Jaiden: Yeah. I have a very similar example to that, that I like. I’m really not active on my TikTok. I wish I was more active, but I posted like a. Get ready with me to go to my MRI appointment probably three, maybe four years ago.

I wanna say three, but it might’ve been four years ago. And I still, like, I still get traction on that post randomly it will pick up and I’ll get some comments and likes and stuff like randomly, multiple times throughout the year. And I’m just like, how are you guys finding this? But it’s because they’re searching like meningioma, which is what I was talking about in the, the TikTok and then my content’s coming up.

It’s just, it’s so crazy because that doesn’t. It doesn’t work like that on Instagram. Like your, your content can still support you on Instagram, like after it’s been posted. But it’s not gonna go viral. And in my experience, it doesn’t even stay that key word friendly.

Sabrina: Right? Yeah. I, I can’t tell you how many times, it’s so funny now that I am showing up on that platform and I’ve been using it more over the past couple years, I will search things over there that I’m interested in because I know that like, oh, TikTok, ISS gonna have a great tutorial on this, or tiktoks gonna have the answer for this.

And I, so I use it as like a search engine too. For example, I had my, I, I had microneedling done for the first time a few weeks ago, and I was like, I wanna see all of the microneedling before and afters and prep tips. And I just literally searched microneedling on TikTok and I went down a rabbit hole and some of the videos I watched were years old, you know?

And so it’s just, it’s fascinating how different the platform works. But I love that when you put the effort in to create a piece of content, that sucker keeps going and it has legs and it will ke you know, even the, the lesser performed posts that I have still will get like a, like or two here or there.

None of them have died. Like none of them have died of death. They all keep going, which is wild. And I’m like, if you’re gonna put the effort into something, it’s kind of nice to actually see it have traction. So. What do you think that that was really surprising to me, being a poster and not just a a, you know, a viewer.

That was really surprising how it keeps going because I just kind of assumed it was. Gonna be like Instagram, like you post and either it does well or it doesn’t, and then you move on. But what do you think surprised you the most when you started using TikTok?

Jaiden: I freaking love this question. I, so I think I got TikTok in like 2020.

I’m pretty sure that’s like when I downloaded it. And at that point, like I just thought it was fun ’cause I was just watching it. But what I found the most interesting and what like really got me thinking about TikTok as something bigger than just a social media platform was watching creators pop off.

Like during 2020. There’s multiple creators that like I still follow today, that I followed when they had like, I don’t know, a thousand followers or something, and now they’re like multimillionaires buying like second homes in Montauk. Like it’s insane. What I really liked about that was seeing like the expansiveness of just like anything is possible and look at all these examples, it’s not even that out of reach.

And it just really opened my mind to the possibilities of like being an influencer as a full-time job and the amount of money that is in the creator industry. Like my eyes were just like, wow, you can seriously do anything you want. And like TikTok has. TikTok has really like changed the world. That sounds like so cheesy, but it’s so true.

It has changed the economy and the way people can make money. It’s just. Crazy.

Sabrina: Oh my gosh, yes. And I agree with you. Like seeing people, like there are people that I have followed or I’ve seen a ton of their content and I’ve seen them go from just like sharing what they enjoy to like one thing takes off and all of a sudden, you know, there’s this whole new.

Industry around this person and they’re following and it’s just, it’s fascinating. Uh, circling back to Taylor Swift and the a tour, there were a bunch of Taylor Swift creators that popped off during that. The people who were live stream, live streaming daily, the people who you know, and it’s just really cool to see that there’s, there’s literally a place for everyone and everything over there.

It’s

Jaiden: anything.

Sabrina: Yes. Like the, there is no, I don’t fit there because this, no, no, no. It doesn’t matter. Like race, age, skin color, hair color, like gender. If you’re a nerd, if you’re popular, if you’re, you know, a size zero or a size 22, like there’s literally everything over there.

Jaiden: And like your niche interests, like people’s niche interests are what?

Thought them to like pop off. It’s like they think like when you, I just wanna say like anyone who’s listening, if you’ve ever thought like, nobody cares about this. Yes they do. I promise. Like I swear because I mean, even on like my for you page, I still see videos sometimes. ’cause you know, like you get fed a random thing for TikTok to test, you feel like it or not.

And I’ll just be like, I cannot believe. That this is like what is making these people money, but like hell yeah. You’re having the best time ever and like you should make money doing whatever you want.

Sabrina: I know that Instagram is a community platform, and like you said, that’s, it’s showing you your followers and all of that, and they’re really trying to get your followers to engage with you.

But I feel like TikTok is a really great community. Also because you can go on TikTok and ask for advice on something and you better believe your comment section is going to pop off with people you have never met around the world who are chiming in on this very specific thing that you’re asking. It is.

Wild. And I will say that’s my, that was my post that went viral that is still will not stop 39,000 views and going and hundreds of comments, um, is because I asked questions and people were like, well, let me answer them for you. And it just kept going and going and going. Which is so fun because talk about community, like people are swooping in and they’re like, oh, I have things to say I wanna add to this conversation.

And it’s so fun.

Jaiden: Yeah. And I think, like, I don’t want, I don’t think that the word like anonymous is. Necessarily what I mean. But on TikTok, there’s a little bit more of that, like you don’t feel like you know everyone, and so it feels. Easier to engage with content you’ve never seen. I don’t even know how to like make that make sense, but it’s true.

Like on Instagram it’s just so rare to get like comments from people who haven’t been in your community for years and years. Like, you’re not gonna get comments from strangers really. And like you are not gonna get asked questions from strangers like. At all.

Sabrina: Yeah. I think part of that is, you know, circling back to when I said, oh, I, you know, I’ve been on there 30 days and I only have 246 followers.

That’s the difference on TikTok. I think it is. It is more rare for people to see a piece of your content and immediately follow you. What I think is more common is they see a piece of your content, they comment, they like it, they save it, they engage with it, and because of that, TikTok automatically shows more of your content, even though they didn’t click Follow you.

TikTok knows that, Hey, I engaged with her content before. I’m gonna show her more of your content. So that’s why,

Jaiden: and you can kind of like see the TikTok platform, what they prioritize by like what people’s profiles have. So like obviously followers are on there, but it also has likes right up there. It has like a cumulative like number, which shows that TikTok values essentially followers as much as they do likes.

You don’t need to be following that creator to see their content as long as you’ve liked it, which is so different from Instagram where it is like followers is up there, but also views. Instagram is real. Really wants your to prioritize your views and not really as much like your engagement even. Which is just so interesting, the, the different platforms.

Sabrina: Yeah, it is, it is wild. I, I just looked at my, my likes. So currently I have 33 posts and my likes are at 5,327. So not too shabby. No, that’s really good. Not too shabby. Um, it’s, it’s really, it’s been really fun. Okay. So. I will say, because I wanna be really, um, candid with the listeners. I have chosen, at least currently in this moment in time, that my TikTok is really for fun.

I am not using it to promote my business. I’m not using it to gain coaching clients or photography clients. It is me showing up like truly as a behind the scenes of like, what’s going on in my life. So I will share about having a senior in high school. I will share about needle point, I will share about what I wore this week.

I will share about me bebopping around in my car. Like it’s, it really is random and more of a behind the scenes. And so I’m not using it for business, but I’m still, it’s, it’s like a fun, creative outlet, truly is what I’m using it for. But. There’s definitely room for people who have businesses and who want to be the influencers or the content creators.

So do you think that there’s equal room for all of those different people, or do you think it’s really geared more towards one or the other?

Jaiden: I do honestly think that there’s room for all of those different things, and I wanna say number one, I think starting where you’re starting is a really good place to start because I do think, and I run across these accounts all the time on TikTok, but I do see people starting all the time with the intention of making money on it.

And you’re just, you’re not doing the building trust. Era, which is gonna make that really hard for you. So I love what you’re doing, building a community, sharing what you’re passionate about. If at some point that turns into a monetization, that’s incredible. But I love that you’re kind of going at it from like more of a fun space.

The thing about TikTok is there are so many ways to make money, obviously, like we don’t even need to get into like the influencer brand partnership side of things. Everyone understands that. But on TikTok, TikTok rewards creators just for like creativity. Like are your videos popular And getting a lot of views, like they will reward for that, like monetarily.

They also reward for TikTok shop. So that’s why you’ve probably seen like a hundred million TikTok shop accounts because they were rewarding creators who were sharing on TikTok shop,

Sabrina: because I’ve bought things from TikTok shop.

Jaiden: Me too, me too. Guilty. Um, and then also TikTok Will has specific. Funds for niches like education.

So for example, there’s a creator I follow who teaches finance education. TikTok pays her to create those educational videos. So really like you could do anything you want, right? Like you could do product reviews and make money off of that. You could make educational videos and make money off that. You could just be creative in having fun and make money off of that.

And I think that opens up the opportunity, like you get to choose. What you wanna do or just like have fun and see where things go.

Sabrina: Do you think people need a niche before you start, or do you think they can kind of figure it out as you go? And I’m gonna ask this, I’m gonna hear what you say and then we will share our conversation that you and I had before I started.

Jaiden: Okay. This conversation to me, always has two parts to it. The quicker you niche, the faster you’re gonna grow, period. Like that’s just how life works. On the same coin, if you don’t maybe know what it is you wanna do and you are feeling like niching is giving you stress and you don’t like, it feels really limiting and you’re afraid and you can’t post because you’re too niche, whatever, like that’s not helpful.

So in that case, I would say you need to just post and you need to just see a type of content that you find interesting and then recreate it with your own spin on it, whatever it is. To start getting content out there, and I will say too. Niching is super valuable, but also if you niche too much, you may miss out on an opportunity to do something that you find extremely fun and your audience finds extremely interesting because you’re limiting yourself to what you can post.

Sabrina: Yeah. So that was, that was honestly my hangup, um, towards the end of the year, towards the end of last year when I was like, I think I wanna start showing up on TikTok, but like, I’m really overwhelmed and I don’t know who I am over there. That’s what I told you. So on one of our monthly calls, I was like, I need you to talk me through like, who am I on TikTok?

I knew I didn’t want to be coaching. I knew I wanted this space to be different from Instagram, but I didn’t know like, well, what does that mean? And you were so, and I, I know it’s ’cause I was too close to it, but you were like, um, you’re a business owner and a mom. I’m like, yes I am. It was so obvious when you just made it really simple.

I think I was trying to do what you just said. I think I was trying to niche too far. My voice. Voice. And you were like, no, no, no, no, no, girl. We don’t need to niche that far. Like just business owner motherhood, balancing the two. Like that’s good enough. And so that’s kind of where I started. But to your point, because I wasn’t super niched, as I started getting into it and having ideas, I was like, oh, I can share about going to Pilates.

Oh, I can share about needle point. I can share about having a senior in high school. Those specific things have gotten me reach and engagement and new followers. Now that I’m a month into it, I think I’m starting to settle in to like my voice over there and it doesn’t feel as scary. Um, so I do feel like I’m niched, but I still have room to like share random things that I’m interested in because it fits into the bubble, if that makes sense.

Jaiden: Yeah. I think this is a problem that everyone has, like TikTok or Instagram doesn’t matter. Like so many clients come to me and are just like. Oh, they’re either like way restricted by the content pillars or niche that they’ve chosen for themselves and just feel like, oh, I can really only post this because like, that’s the only thing that makes sense.

And like literally yesterday I had a conversation with a woman and I was like, um, you are a family photographer. Share about time, like, like you can share about things that don’t directly tie to your business on these platforms. Like that’s ultimately what gives you the growth. And like for you on TikTok, it’s like, yeah, you don’t have to just share about motherhood.

Also share about needlepoint. Also share about like Pilates and like what you’re doing for yourself. Like I think people like put themselves too much in a box and then they get paralyzed and feel like I can’t post anything outside of this, and that’s not true. I do feel like it’s less of a, less often I find people who are too scattered.

You’re usually not too scattered. ’cause at the end of the day, like you are who you are, that like you’re not gonna like go post something too crazy.

Sabrina: That’s the kind of accounts that I choose to actually follow and not just creep on their stuff, are the ones where they’re willing to share the different facets of their personality.

Because you know, they’re the women that I’m like, I’m obsessed with you. I wanna meet you in real life. You know what I mean? Because they share their outfits and their hobbies and their date night, and I just think it’s fun. So sharing, being willing to share about yourself within a little bit of a niche, but not so niche down.

I do wanna add in one thing about like location specific. I am, you know, again, I’ve chosen to show up as the over there as just. Like a business owner mom, and the things I’m interested in, I’m not trying to sell my business. So for most of my posts, I have not tagged location because that’s not, it doesn’t matter.

There have been two or three times that I have tagged location, one of which was we had an ice storm and school was out for a whole bunch of days. And I posted something funny when the kids went back to school about like, the ice is melting. I’m at Pilates, my kids are at school and I have a fun drink.

It’s a great day or whatever. And I tagged Fort Worth, Texas. I thought it was freaking fascinating how all of the people commenting on that post were locals. And that was the first time I had done that. And again, I was like, TikTok, your algorithm is just so freaking spot on.

Jaiden: It’s so wild. Yeah. I will say with the geographical, the thing on TikTok too is like if you are geographic, like you have to use tags like or else.

Or else you will just like, it’s not gonna pay off for you. Like for example, if you’re a Fort Worth photographer, like that’s the point of your account and you want more photography clients. You have to be really targeted with like your hashtags, your tags or anything because, or else you’re gonna show up in like.

I don’t even know, like Pennsylvania or something and like that’s not gonna help you at all. But that’s the thing that I love about TikTok is like if you aren’t geographic, like it’s so easy to go like globally viral.

Sabrina: Yes. And that’s, that was my point is that I did that one time and I saw a huge shift in the engagement in that particular thing.

And then I haven’t really done it since and it’s just, it’s incredible how. Specific you can tell TikTok, here’s who I want you to show this to, and tiktoks like, okay, cool. Hold my beer. I’ve got it. You know? And it shows it to the right people. You know, if you wanna make more money in your business, but you are exhausted and don’t want to burn yourself out while you do it.

I made something just for you. It’s called More Money, less Burnout, and it’s a free 14 day business reset with short daily audios all under three minutes plus one tiny action step to help you create more income, better boundaries, and some breathing room in your business. It’s simple, self-paced, and designed to actually fit into real life.

You can grab it now at sabrina ebhart.com/business-reset, or check the show notes for the link. So for somebody who is local, they decide I am a photographer in, you know, Fort Worth, Texas. I’m gonna show up in this space to get more clients and to share more about the inside of my business. Is there room for them?

Is that gonna be easy? Is it gonna be hard? Like what advice do you have for that person? Because I know a lot of the listeners are gonna be in those shoes, like maybe they wanna show up on TikTok for their business.

Jaiden: Yeah, I definitely think you can show up on TikTok for your geographically targeted business.

I think you have to. Tell TikTok, like in your bio, it needs to have a location in each post. You really need to have a tag of the location in the hashtags. You need to have the location. You really do need to target it that way. And like even in your content, like my favorite locations to shoot at in Fort Worth, Texas, like.

You really have to like make your content targeted or else it’s just, like I said, like it’s just not gonna, it’s gonna show it to people who are never gonna hire you. ’cause like they’re not gonna come from state states away for like family photos, you know? So I think that’s the biggest thing to note.

But I also think like. It absolutely will work. Like even in what you were saying, like you were searching people who were doing the, like same skin treatment you were going to do, people are doing that same thing on TikTok, like Fort Worth, family photographer, Fort Worth, wedding photographer, whatever it is.

So they’re doing that and you can show up in those searches as well.

Sabrina: I, I thought it was really important for me that I wanted my content on Instagram and TikTok to be different. Again, I was looking at, or I am looking at TikTok as like a creative, fun space. But for somebody who’s like, you know what, I will give it a try, but I do wanna show up as my business on TikTok.

Do you think that it’s still important to have different content in both places because of the way that the algorithms work?

Jaiden: I would say some of your content can overlap. Maybe like 50% of your content can overlap, for example. If you’re posting carousels on Instagram that kind of have like tech, a little bit of text on them and they’re like telling a story, that can go on TikTok as well, because you can share carousel type content like that.

If you’re just sharing a carousel of like images, like that’s not gonna work on TikTok, so you’re gonna need to, you know, adapt it to TikTok. For your reels, a lot of those can be posted on both platforms. If you wanna optimize it for TikTok, you just wanna make sure that you’re using like the TikTok fonts from TikTok, the TikTok audio from TikTok, like the hashtags for TikTok especially ’cause like hashtags don’t really even work on Instagram anymore, so like.

You just have to, you can’t, I wouldn’t like necessarily do a set it and forget it type thing where you’re using a scheduler and just posting to both platforms. If you really want it to work, you’re going to have to tweak it for each platform. I do think that the content can cross over. I also think on TikTok you could be way less polished.

Like you could just get on there and talk about photography, like you don’t necessarily have to like create a reel that has images and things like that, that work on Instagram, like on TikTok, you can just be a little bit more. Chill with it.

Sabrina: Yeah. I totally think if a photographer’s gonna show up on TikTok for gaining clients, I would look at it more as like, here’s what’s happening in my business here.

I’m getting ready to go to a session. Here’s what I’m thinking about. Or I just came home from a session, I’m, I can’t wait to call the images because this thing happened. Like more of that kind of stuff. And also. Personality driven things like, so that potential clients can get to know you and like why, why would they wanna hire you over somebody else?

Jaiden: Yeah.

Sabrina: Yeah. I do think you could have a little bit of your work over there, especially if it’s like kind of an accessory and not the forefront of your content. You know, I talk about on this podcast and in my teaching a lot like connection driven marketing, and I just, I think it is so much stronger on TikTok than I do Instagram, which is shocking Me as a year ago would be like, what did she just say?

But I really do, I think it’s so much easier to connect with people on TikTok.

Jaiden: Yeah. And like you have to do, like, you have to use the platforms and do what you wanna do that feels good for you. Like. Even my husband, he does music and he is super blocked with Instagram. He’s like, I just don’t wanna post like on Instagram.

Like it feels so, like, to him it feels like vulnerable and like personal and like he knows all of those people in real life and it just feels weird. And so he doesn’t wanna do it. But he is like, but I feel like I can post it on TikTok, no problem. Because it just feels like a little bit more, I’m gonna meet people that are interested in the same things.

I’m interested, like it’s that interest based algorithm. And then also like he doesn’t feel like he knows them in real life, which actually makes him feel a little bit more connected to them because he’s like, I know you don’t like see me every day. Which I just think is interesting and like maybe that is true for you, whoever’s listening that like you’re not loving how it feels showing up on Instagram, having like your grandma follow you, but you feel more comfortable and excited to start doing that on TikTok.

Like go test it out over there. Like see if you like that more.

Sabrina: Yeah. The other thing that I think I know from a lot of my clients is a hangup is they feel like they spend so much time creating the content for Instagram. And I, everybody that I’ve talked to in this last month since being on TikTok, I’m like, it is so much easier.

It is so much faster to literally like upload a video clip, slap some text on it. They recommend the music. Just select the music that they give you. I can have something posted and, and you’re not expected to write this big long caption. Like they don’t care if you write a caption. They’re like, they’re like, give me three hashtags and a four word sentence, and you’re great.

And like, that’s it. It’s, it’s just so much faster to post something. Can you post complicated things over there? Sure. You can do, you know, the dancing or the, you know, the voiceover stuff or the whatever. There’s a million more quote unquote complicated things you can do on TikTok. The vast majority of the stuff that I am doing is like it’s created in like three minutes.

Create from create to post. Done. It’s so much faster.

Jaiden: I also wanna just rewind a tiny bit into what we were saying about using the content on both platforms. One thing too is like you can try stuff on TikTok and see if you like it, and then if you do, you could pull it over to Instagram because what happens on social media trends is they usually always start on TikTok.

And we’ve even seen that, like you’ve even seen that a little bit coming over to Instagram, where like that less curated content is doing better on Instagram. That just it, it kind of evolves that way for whatever reason. So if you’re like having a really good time creating a certain type of content on TikTok, then just post it on Instagram one day.

Like you can just, you can see if you like put it over there too.

Sabrina: Yeah. I haven’t put anything in my feed yet because it’s nothing that’s really would make sense. But I have shared tiktoks to my Instagram stories, um, which has been fun. Like, the other thing I’ll say is like. I think for a long time, back when I was super anti TikTok, it felt very much like there was an age gap.

Like the kids are over there and I’m an old lady and let me just say, so if there’s somebody listening that think that is thinking that, that they’re like, but I’m a newborn photographer, or I’m a family photographer, or whatever, your people are there. I don’t care how old you are. Some of my, some of my favorite.

Do you, have you ever seen the woman? She’s like, she’s probably 90. And she’s got like gray hair and her whole shtick on TikTok is she’ll. She’s looking at the camera and she’s like, I gotta tell you something. And she, and it’s like a piece of grandma advice. And normally it’s a little bit snarky. It’s fantastic.

She has an enormous following, and that woman is ancient. Okay? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter the age of you or your clients,

Jaiden: it doesn’t, everyone is over there. There’s really. You don’t have to worry about if your audience is on TikTok. They are like

Sabrina: they are.

Jaiden: Absolutely. Yeah,

Sabrina: they are. Okay. So let’s say we’ve inspired somebody to download the app for the first time.

What are the, what are three things that they need to do first?

Jaiden: I love this question. I’m gonna look at my notes just so I remember what I had to say, but, um, I think the first thing I would say is, what is your goal? Are you here to have fun? That’s totally fine. Are you here to grow your business? That’s totally fine.

It’s also okay if your goal changes, I would just have in mind like, what are you here for? Because that’s going to give you a purpose and also kind of stop you from just like doom scrolling. Like have some limitations on like what you’re ready to consume and like explore over there. Then I, the, the next thing is I would just carve out time.

If you, if you decide that your goal is, you do wanna post there, I would just make sure you carve out time for it. Like you have to treat it like you would treat anything that you really wanna do. Going to the gym, making dinners at home, whatever it is you have to like. Make it possible for you to do that every day.

Can you time block it? Where are you gonna build it into your routine that you’re gonna post every day? Because that’s gonna be your limiter, which you, you have done such a good job being consistent. But TikTok really is a consistency. And volume focused platform. So if you’re like try, if you’re treating it like Instagram or you’re treating it like, oh, I’m just gonna like post one thing, it’s just not gonna do what you want it to do.

So you really need to build out that time to spend creating on it, which, like you said, years are happening really fast, so maybe you only need 30 minutes. Like that’s totally fine. And then the third thing is I would just find like three repeatable content types that you want to create so that you can, again, all of these steps are, they’re playing into each other, right?

So if you have those three repeatable content types, you always have something that you can create. So maybe you do like creating the day in the life videos, like make that one of your things that you do every single week. The reason I think you need to find three to kind of start with is if you don’t, and we talked about this when you first started, is that like you’re gonna not post ’cause you’re gonna be like either overwhelmed by ideas or not have an idea that day and it’s gonna stop you.

So knowing that you always have a little like bank you can pull from for the days when you don’t have as many ideas, it is gonna be really helpful for you. And then. Knowing the types of content you wanna create also helps you time block the appropriate amount of time. Like if you wanna do a day in the life, that’s gonna take longer to edit.

So you’re gonna need more time blocked off to actually achieve that. But that’s, yeah, that’s what I would encourage you to do if you want to be successful.

Sabrina: Yeah, I totally agree. When we had our conversation about like how I’m gonna show up over there. I, we came up with a few ideas and then I took that and I added to it.

So I have a note in my phone that has like 30 ideas, and honestly though, that helped me the first week. After that, I felt like I kind of had my, my rhythm and I just have been kind of going rogue. The other thing is I have started to save people’s content into a folder. ’cause when you save on TikTok, you can organize your saves.

And so I have a folder that’s literally called Ideas to try and it’s, I either liked their language or their footage or something about it and I’m like, I could remake that. And so I have a whole bunch of ideas in there too. I would say I would add to, to the advice. If somebody is downloading it for the first time, so they have not participated on TikTok, they, they’re not even really sure what’s happening.

I would say give yourself some time to like get your feet wet as a user. You know what I mean? Because. And one of the things I love about TikTok is when you download it, at least I’m assuming it still does this, doesn’t it still ask you questions about what you wanna see as a, like a, a brand new banner?

Because I remember, I remember that when I downloaded it, it was like, are you interested in, and it was a whole bunch of like quiz like questions of like animals or fashion or. Whatever. And so you’re basically choosing your own adventure so that it can immediately from your first use, show you things that you said you’re interested in.

You know?

Jaiden: And if I remember right, like at the beginning when you do that, you’re gonna kind of be like, okay, some of these are good, some of these are like, not really it, but like that’s the thing, the algorithm, it figures you out pretty quickly if you just. If you just give it a little bit of time and like everyone figures this out at some point, but it’s like if you liked something, make sure you like, like it.

Save it.

Sabrina: Yes, yes.

Jaiden: To like engage with it. Watch it twice.

Sabrina: I equate it to how fast Pinterest learns you. So when you are on Pinterest, actively searching for fill in the blank, you know, a graduation party theme, and you start saving certain things immediately. As you keep scrolling, it is, it is changing what it’s showing you to match things that you just saved, like it’s instantaneous tiktoks the same way.

When you are scrolling and you’re, for you if you sat and watched a video about microneedling and then sat and watched another video about skincare routine or whatever, it is immediately gonna start filtering and showing you more of that stuff, either from that creator or aligned with like the skincare type content.

It learns you real fast. Yeah, really fast. Really, really fast.

Jaiden: I also like, on that note, wanna say if you get into an algorithm that you don’t like. Like, for example, when politics come up, sometimes like that can start coming on your feed. And if, if you are not the type that wants to see that or there are certain things that you’re sensitive to.

One of my favorite things about TikTok is that you can go into your settings and put a bunch of keywords that you never wanna see.

Sabrina: Yep.

Jaiden: And I love that because there’s sometimes like, there’s some things I don’t want to see there. Like I just don’t wanna see it. Tiktoks just doing its best. It thinks that I’m gonna be interested in that, but I’m not.

So don’t show it to me.

Sabrina: Yeah, it’s, and it’s wild. Like I rarely see something that I am viscerally not interested in. I don’t think I’ve ever been shown something like super far off. You know, I’ve been shown things that I can see why they’re showing it to me, even though I’m like, eh, not so much. But it, it really is.

A platform that becomes what you want it to be, you know? And so if all, if all you’re interested is crafts, you’re gonna get fed a ton of crafts. You know what I mean? There. It really is something for everybody. And, and it’s wild. There’s, there is like the most random niches, like everyone belongs there.

There is something for everyone there, a hundred percent. Um, do you think there’s any mistakes that a beginner should avoid or is it a pretty straightforward experience?

Jaiden: Yes, so I think that there’s just so much to be learned as a beginner, and I am not, I’m not adverse to being a beginner, and that’s what I would tell you is like, you’re absolutely going to be a beginner.

There’s no way to avoid that. You’re not gonna, like, there’s not a hack to avoid being a beginner if there was. Everyone would do it. Like it’s just, you’re gonna be a beginner for a second, and that’s okay. Embracing the fact that like making a mistake or not knowing what you’re doing, that’s gonna happen at some point and instead of trying to avoid it, I would just go into it knowing that, let yourself be a beginner.

Let yourself try new things. Let yourself be scared and do it anyway and see how it evolves.

Sabrina: Yeah, exactly. We talked about how fast I have gained traction in some areas, like relatively fast, you know, within a month. I will say that like your first post is not gonna be incredible ’cause tiktoks like, who are you and what are we doing here?

You know, and that’s just normal. You just have to show up. I was so paralyzed on what the first post should be because it’s like, is it an introduction? Is it something creative? And then finally my friend was like, it doesn’t matter. Like do you just have to show up so that the algorithm can start learning you?

And so we, it, you know, ended up being something super random. I’ve never done any kind of introduction or anything like that. Doesn’t mean I won’t someday, but you know, like just post something. Just start showing up.

Jaiden: The biggest barrier is just. Being okay with like looking dumb or feeling dumb or feeling silly.

Like it’s just, that’s the biggest hurdle. And if you think about it, that’s a pretty small hurdle. Like just post it and then close out the app. It’s okay.

Sabrina: Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, that’s another thing that I love about TikTok. You can just post and leave and still have a post go incredibly well. Instagram gets pissed at you when you do that.

When you post and shut down the app, Instagram’s like, excuse me, um, why aren’t you still using this? I’m not gonna show this to anyone. Meanwhile, tiktoks like, I’ve got you. We’re gonna go viral overnight, and so that when you open the app in the morning, you’re gonna be shocked. You really can post and leave and like.

That’s fine. Um, which is wild. Okay, a couple more questions. I, I wanna make sure we touch on this because I, this comes up with people on Instagram and so I know that they’re probably thinking the same thing. They’re probably hearing us talk about all of these creators on TikTok and how there’s something for everyone and people can make a ton of money and people are so creative.

I know that the listeners are probably like, but I’m boring. I don’t have anything to share. What, how do, how do you speak to that?

Jaiden: Okay. Be boring then. Like you could make a whole brand off of being boring if you want like, but you probably aren’t boring. But if you genuinely think that you are, then build your brand.

Being boring. Or you can decide that you’re not boring. And I mean, the thing I think about this is that it’s not always what you’re posting. It’s not school pickup. Yeah, maybe school pickup is boring. It’s how you’re doing it. Are you doing it in a funny way? Are you doing it in a neurodivergent way? Are you doing it in a single mother way?

Are you doing it in a chaotic way? What way are you doing it in? That’s what’s making it interesting. Not necessarily the task, like anyone a comedian could make doing laundry. Funny. Like it doesn’t have to be interesting to be good content and yeah, you, you have a choice. Embrace being boring or decide that you’re not.

That’s,

Sabrina: those are

Jaiden: the

Sabrina: choices that you have. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, I, I, and I do think that’s a little bit where, you know, if you are super brand new to TikTok. Just being on the app for a little while so that you can actually see how much boring stuff is actually there. I mean, how many millions of people are doing Get ready with me every day?

So when you think about it, that’s actually boring because so many people are doing it. It’s not new, but we’re still fascinated by it, and we still watch every step of their routine and listen to everything they’re saying, you know? So it doesn’t have to be one in a million unique. For people to be interested in what you’re doing, whether you’re making coffee or school pickup or folding the laundry or you know, a video of you doing needle point where you ask a question and then it goes viral.

You know? Like it really doesn’t have to be anything incredible, crazy over there at all.

Jaiden: And here’s the thing, somebody somewhere’s gonna think it’s boring. Like, yeah, somebody’s not gonna relate to that and think it’s boring. But like there are people who. Find it interesting or just like find it comforting.

Like you don’t even have to be like an interesting creator. You could just be a comfortable creator. Like, yeah, it doesn’t have to be. I, I would just ask you to like consider where you’re making that the limitation. Like what, why are you creating that as the problem? Because it’s probably not real.

Sabrina: Yeah.

And like, think about yourself personally, even if you do think I’m just, I’m a mom and I’m running around with my kids and I’ve got my little business and I work from home by myself and nothing really interesting happens. Okay. But like you have friends. And you have people that love you and none of them would say that you’re boring.

Your life might feel boring to you, but that absolutely does not mean that it is. You know, you have unique spins on everything. You have perspective points of views. You have a unique kind of humor to you interest disinterest like, and that’s the thing is you can show up over there. However, you can show up snarky, you can show up as encouraging.

You can show up as boring if you want. You can show up as whatever. And. Like thinking about it that way because I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to, again, circling back to the content creators, like, I’m not beautiful enough. I don’t have a lavish enough life. I’m not exciting enough because I’m not jet setting around the world.

Right. Most of us aren’t, you know?

Jaiden: Yeah. Yeah. That’s like the thing too is like, okay, but boring is also very relatable, so I don’t know. Yeah. Like that’s the limitation. Like why do you think. Boring is the thing that’s stopping you. Like boring is relatable, right? Boring. Uh, moms will connect with you on having a boring life.

Like maybe the point is that it’s boring.

Sabrina: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let’s, let’s end with this one. Somebody is listening and they are intrigued. They’re inspired. Maybe they’ve been thinking about doing the same thing and getting over on TikTok and now they’re like, okay, I am doing it. What would you fee say to somebody who feels like they’re just intimidated?

To get going.

Jaiden: You’re always, you’re always gonna feel that way. You’re always gonna feel that way. And that’s the harsh, like cold, hard truth, and also like kick in the butt that you probably need. Is that like you’re always gonna feel that way about something and you have to do it anyway. Like that’s the only way to grow.

That’s the only way to break through it, is to just hit post on your first post. Just try, just decide that it’s not gonna be a big deal today, and you’re just gonna do it.

Sabrina: Just start already. Um, this was such a fun chat. I knew it was going to be. Um, before we wrap, why don’t you tell the audience where they can find you?

Jaiden: Oh, yes. Um, find me on Instagram. Like I said, I’m not really. I’m not really doing TikTok for myself right now, maybe one day. But on Instagram you can find me at the rave social and that’s the best way to connect with me.

Sabrina: Amazing. Um, thank you so much for your time. This was such a fun chat. I, um. I will have my TikTok linked in the show notes if you wanna come see what I’m doing over there.

Um, it’s been really fun, but I would love to hear from you. So if you listen to this episode and you’ve got something out of it, or if you’ve got questions, feel free to send a DM to either myself or Jayden, and we would love to hear from you. But that’s it for today, my friends. We’ll see you next time.

Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot at Straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode@sabrinagehart.com slash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gehart Photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review.

Until next time, my friends. Shoot it straight.