The Queen of Tech UGC Reveals Her Secrets to Going Viral | Sidney Brant E2

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the UGC Industry Podcast, the show where we bring together creators, brands, and everyone who's building the UGC space into one conversation. I'm Brandon Heen, your host, and every week I sit down with the people who are shaping the UGC industry, from creators who are landing brand deals to the founders and agencies behind them. Let's get into it. On this episode, we have Sydney Brandt, the queen of Viral Tech UGC, and Sydney has done some crazy numbers on her own accounts and now helps people to do the same. Welcome, Sydney.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Welcome. I'm excited to be on.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

So I've heard a crazy story about your UGC experience where you've made like over $40,000 with one single video.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

With one video, yeah. I think it was like a 30-second long one, too.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

So how does that even happen? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Tech UGC is a different game because instead of being paid just for the video up front, you're getting paid based on how it performs. That video alone on TikTok got like 35 million views within a couple of weeks. And then the same video did about 10 million on YouTube, and I think five on Instagram. So when you add up all the performance pay, it ended up coming out to like 40,000 in one month from one video.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Wow. So guys, yeah, just to set some baseline terminology, so we use the terms tech UGC, Canvas UGC, and organic UGC synonymously. So Sydney, can you tell me what that kind of UGC is and how it's different from regular UGC?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah. So when people look at regular UGC, they typically think of kind of like the influencer space where you're getting paid to promote a product and you're maybe getting paid a flat amount to post like a certain amount of videos. Rather that's directly to the brand and they're posting it on their brand page, or maybe you're doing it on your own page and promoting it that way. It's usually some sort of flat rate. Tech UGC or Canvas or Organic are more based on you having a kind of ambassador account. And so I will create an account that's themed for the brand I'm working for. I'll post on a daily cadence for them. And then they'll pay me a certain amount to post those videos for them throughout the month, along with that performance bonus, which is why I got paid that amount for that one singular video. So it's a little bit different. Like you kind of think that UGC is gonna be more so like promoting a product for a flat rate, but especially when a lot of these companies are newer and they're looking for a lot of volume and content, it's kind of a different way that they pay you and different expectations that they have.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

So if you've ever been scrolling on Instagram and TikTok and you see an account with like something funny, there's a lot of study apps or something, maybe it's an interview of someone getting a job, and then you go and click on the account, all of a sudden see it's like the person basically doing the same video over and over again. That's an organic UGC account where basically you're making a super simple video every single day for the same company, and and the whole purpose of it is for it to seem like a normal person. Sydney, what would you say some of the main benefits of this kind of UGC are?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Oh my gosh. Um, I hate like highly editing a video, right? Like I think that there's people who are really great at it. I love an influencer girl or a UGC girl who loves to make a good Cap Cut edit. I cannot do it for the life of me. But I can be a little funny here and there. Like I can come up with a good storyline. And so I like that I can get my creative freedom through like the storyline that I'm doing instead of having to spend a lot of time on Cap Cut or like using an editing software. Um, I just think there's a little bit of like a different type of creativity that goes into it. It's really fun to be able to create a lot of videos for one brand instead of working with someone like once and then having to wait a few months to see if they circle back. Like I really get to know the team, I really get to know the founder, and I really get to know the product.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Totally. And I love that too. So I do all three kinds of UGC: organic UGC, traditional UGC, and commission-based. And something that's really nice about organic UGC is that you're not constantly having to learn new briefs. You're basically promoting the same product every day. So, how long would you say it takes you to make a typical tech UGC video?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I typically do it as kind of like a batch film process. On average, I'd say that one company takes me about two hours a week. If I'm like really have worked with them for a while and I know what I'm doing, especially because, like you said, they're very similar to each other. Usually I can get all like 14 of them done within two hours.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

14 videos in two hours. Yeah. So that's a major difference. Because you when you when you look at the base pay per video, it may be 10, 20, 30 dollars.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yes. What's your thoughts on that? Yes. I can Canvas, tech, organic, it all gets so much hate because of that, because people take it at face value, right? And so you'll see that you're maybe getting paid like $10 or $15 for a video. You see that and think, well, that's not a lot of money, right? Like if I'm putting this much time into making something, I should get compensated for that fairly. But when it only takes you that amount of time, usually two hours to do 14 instead of what usually takes two hours to do one, it really is pretty comparable to what you'd be getting paid for a regular UGC, and you're not getting any performance pay. And so, like, even though I'm only getting paid a set amount for one video, when you do that 14 times over in the same amount of time, and then if they perform, you get an extra bonus incentive. It actually can be quite a bit more lucrative, especially as a beginner.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Exactly. And that's a good point. Tech UGC is the most beginner-friendly type of UGC. It's it's super easy to get into because there's so many brands who want to hire these types of people. And you don't need to learn how to edit, you don't need a tripod, you don't need to learn camera angles. If you can hold up your phone and talk to it like this, you can do tech UGC. So I want to know how did you get into UGC?

SPEAKER_01 5:29

When I was 17, I had a random like personal TikTok account that I would just post like really funny videos to. Anyone who like posted like on musically or TikTok in high school, like, you know, just making videos with your friends. And one day I randomly got a DM from someone who asked to make one like tech brand video for them to post on their page for $50. And I was like, okay, like I'm 17, right? Like $50 is great, right? Like I can buy two Jimmy John sandwiches this week. Like, I don't care, it's fine. And so I do this TikTok for him, and it ended up getting two million views on his page. I mean, it was a tech startup, so very similar to what I work with today. And it was a like kind of friend, like social network. It kind of reminded me of like Be Real at the time, which was really popping off. Um, and it got two million views. And I mean, I literally just a couple weeks ago got a DM from the founder and was like, that changed our lives. Like, you didn't know it at the time, but that $50 became much more for the rest of the company. And that kind of just like happened. I didn't really think anything. I didn't do any other brand deals. Four years later, um, I'm a senior in college and I went to school for like marketing adjacent degree. And so I'm looking for a social media management job.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Job that would pay you 40k for an entire year. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Working 40 hours a week. That sounds so fun. Who would be? That's what I thought was the cap, but that's the dream. Yes. And it ended up being a TechQC gag, which I didn't really know what it was, but I just knew that it was from my phone and I liked making TikToks and it was easy. That was my first ever like study app that I started working for for a long time. And after a couple months, I had my first viral video, how to bonus, was like, oh, I'm actually making like over a thousand dollars for something that's only taking me a couple of hours. I'm a college student working from my phone, like making TikTok videos is the dream, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, and what are your peers doing this time, like at this time? What are they doing for money?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Part-time jobs, like bartending, maybe being a waitress, like internships that weren't really paying anything, nothing super crazy. It was kind of funny to be posting TikToks and like having to explain that to my friends too, which like to this day, trying to explain to someone what I do for work is impossible.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

A lot of people, when you when you think of making TikToks and making money, you think you have to get on camera, dance, be silly, be like Bryce Hall type guys. But no, the people making money with tech UGC are just completely regular people. You're not even posting on your own account. So nobody even has to know you're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

No. I don't think anyone like organically discovered it themselves unless I told them until probably a year into it when I had like 20 people I was working for. It's like, okay, inevitably someone's gonna see it, but no, only the people that I told. And so I did that for I think three months before I had my second company reach out to me in the DMs of like that account. And I did work with another one until I graduated school.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And what year is this, by the way?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I started it at the end of 2023.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Okay, so about two and a half years ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

So not that long, but in UGC time, a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Especially organic like tech, like no one was doing it. That was kind of the beginning. Um, and like study and study apps were really the people who spearheaded that. Like they were the first ones to actually start trying it.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Mm-hmm. And then so you were coming up about to graduate college. What made you decide that you wanted to stay with UGC? Did you ever think that you wanted to get a job, or what was your thought process?

SPEAKER_01 8:36

I always knew I wanted to do something of my own. I didn't know exactly what that would be. Of course, like going to school for marketing. I thought it would be something adjacent, like a marketing agency or some sort of like social media agency that I would do on my own. Did I expect to do it right out of school? Like, absolutely not. Um, but I had just spent my last semester of school abroad and I ended up coming home with the same amount of money that I left with while I was traveling Europe and I wasn't being frugal, right? Like I was going out to eat all the time. I was traveling country to country. Yes, we were having a good time.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

And see, that's another awesome thing about tech UGC is that you don't need to get shipped products.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

No. So I was able to do it in 13 different countries over like three months' time, and I came home and I was like, if I can do this and travel Europe and still make really good money, I only have two people I'm working for. Why couldn't I do it with 10? I graduated and I just spent that entire month in my parents' basement emailing every single company that I possibly could.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Were there platforms yet? Or was this purely cold outreach at this point?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

There probably was, but I didn't know about them. Like I had never even discovered. I think Sideshift was like just starting to become a thing, but I hadn't used it at all. So all I was doing was like searching through different ambassadors like on TikTok organically and just DMing everyone and like asking them for a company contact. I probably had 200 DMs. Um, and I would DM them from like different accounts too to like try and maximize the amount of times that was asking. And then if I like had a company I would work for, I'd ask if they had references.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So another problem that a lot of UGC creators run into is that they don't have grit and they they give up, they give up so easily. Do you hear she just said she had two different accounts so she could maximize the amount of messages she was sending? And at this time, there weren't even coaches or courses telling you how to do it. And I always say one of the best skills of UGC creators who actually figure it out is literally your figure it out ability. You don't even need to know marketing, you just need to learn how to overcome uh challenges and push forward, just like anything else in life.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And be willing to fail, right? Like, I mean, how long was it before I actually started to get responses? Like, it took a while. And even when I first started posting videos for that first company I was working with, it took two months before I had anything that actually did decent. Like, if you scroll back and look at the first few videos I made, it's like that's terrible. Like they were not good. They were getting maybe 200 views for like a month straight. But it like you learn from that, you learn what not to do. You have one that does a little bit better and you learn what does better and then keep going, and eventually something works.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

100%. And so so both of us coach up and coming UGC creators now. And how how many times do you hear people say, like, oh, I can't go viral? How many times have you posted? Oh, I've made eight videos.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah, all the time. It takes a while. It's also a brand new account. You have to like fight the algorithm, you have to try and push it out to the right people for a while, like build up some consistency. You can't expect to have everything figured out within a week of doing it, but you want to, right? Especially when you're starting out and you see a lot of people doing well. It kind of inflates this idea in your head of how long it takes, but yeah, once you get there.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

I think it took me like 300 or more videos before I finally went viral. And the other thing is we say it took a long time, two months. Imagine you go into a career. Uh, you start off out out of college making 45k. Guess what? An entire year goes by, and maybe you can get a promotion up to 52k. Like you can literally go from zero to 5k a month in two months. And that's very realistic. Obviously, there's stories of people going viral and making more, but what other industry can you be in your early 20s, or no matter what age you are, have no experience in something and go from complete zero to five to ten K a month in a few months?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah. Well, and like very little capital invested in the first place. Like you realistically don't have to have anything invested in it to start making money, which is a very rare thing to find. There's not a lot of things you can do that way.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Very rare. And profit margins are insane. A lot of people in UGC don't have other business experience. I I've done other businesses, I know a lot of business owners, and the one thing that crushes them the most is rising costs. In a regular business, 50% profit margins is amazing. UGC is basically a hundred percent profits. What would you say is the you know, the di the difference between people who you coach and and figure it out and have success and people who kind of just ride off into the sunset and give up? Because that's the only way you fail with UGC is if you give up.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Oh, 100%. Being willing to do it a lot of times over. Um, when someone comes in and like the first week they tell me, I pitched 60 people this week. I spent like every single day taking an hour or two to like really just see who I can hear back from. I know they'll do fine. Like I just know I know that they're gonna like have the grit to be able to do enough repetition to actually like post enough videos and do their follow-ups and reach out to companies and like they want it, and then just learning how to look at the failures and learn from them rather than get discouraged. A lot of tech UGC is seeing what did well and then trying to make it a little bit better every time because we're looking for performance, right? The way that you learn is yes, by having ones do well, but it's also accepting that some of them aren't and like learning, okay, I'm not gonna do that anymore. Here's one thing I'm gonna change about it to make it a little bit better.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Like, what are what are a few things that beginner UGC creators do in videos that they need to improve?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

I think delivery and pacing, if you're doing an actual like speaking video, is the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Sounding natural. That's what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yes, yes. Like, how can you talk to the camera in a way that doesn't feel so much like you're trying to sell someone, which is a skill, right? Like some people just have it more than others, and some people have to learn it, but that's why you keep doing it and you see what works, right? Like, even if you have to put on a character, if you have a different kind of personality that you bring forward on camera than you might actually have in real life, like I am not as loud as in person as I am on video. But in almost every single video that I'm doing, like I'm very loud to the camera. I'm very enthusiastic. Like I'm making sure that the person is getting their attention grabbed. Whereas like in person, I'm I'm pretty mellow, um, but I know what translates well on camera.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

100%. And that's so funny you say that too, because it's the same with me. People who know me in real life, they'll come across my UGC, the Brand and Collabs account, and they'll be like, I'm I'm like yelling on that account. I'm going crazy. Like in real life, I'm never really like raising my voice or doing stuff like that. It's marketing. Yes. So, and it's not like you necessarily need to know deep marketing skills. It really is just being able to sound natural on camera. People think you need to do too much. They think, Oh, I need this lighting, I need tripods, I need to learn how to do camera angles. You can have poor lighting.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

There's people who like make videos in their bed with the lights off in the morning, and it does insanely well because it feels very natural when you're watching it. It doesn't feel too performative. It's like an actually entertaining video or one that I would send to my friend.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

That's a good point. You want to be talking like you're talking to a friend and watch your own video. It's gonna be cringe at first. Oh, yes. You have to get through the cringeness of hearing your own voice and seeing yourself on camera. But what's most likely gonna happen is you're gonna watch your first videos, you're gonna have a different tone of voice, you're gonna be stiff, you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, why do I sound like this and why do I look like this? And that's why it a lot of times takes three to four hundred videos to go viral.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Yeah. I feel like too, it's really helpful for people to try and imitate. Because a lot of what we do when you're trying to post a lot of volume is you might take a video that already worked for someone and then try and recreate it with your own little spin. Um, but like see how their delivery comes across, right? Like see how they're speaking to the camera, what volume level they're doing, when are they cutting the video? When are they speaking? Like if you can try and copy someone's cadence and learn, like, did this work for me? Did I like it? Is this not going to align with my personality and how I speak? Um, that'll help you learn a lot quicker rather than trying to go into it blind and just figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

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SPEAKER_01 17:16

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, just the volume of the amount of brands that actually need it is crazy, right? Every single week I get a new DM from someone saying that they made a new marketplace or app to try and get creators. Um, just the amount of creators needed is probably the biggest change, of course, like on the side of doing organic work. Um it was always kind of a thing I think that people have known about for just like doing, you know, one-time product deals and such. But no, the organic space has grown to be actually crazy. And I think it's gonna take a really, really long time before the amount of creators is more than how much is actually needed in the marketplace. A lot of what I see, I see the same creators working for so many different people. And like that should say a lot about how much is needed. Because if I can notice the same girl on my page working for 15, 20 different people and I'm not seeing new faces, like there's clearly so much more room for new people to come into it.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I always tell people who are getting into UGC, there's like this velocity of success theory where when you're trying to get started with UGC, it just feels so difficult. You're you're working for what feels like pennies because you're not getting any bonuses. But if you can just push through to the point where you start to have success, if you can go viral, like 100k plus views for one company, you will have unlimited opportunities to make money.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yeah, that's the hardest part. Yeah. Without you really having proof of you doing it before. And I kid you not, the minute, the minute that someone lands their first deal, it opens up. Like then brands know that you know what you're doing and that they can hire you without like risking having to teach you everything. And they don't really ever have a problem again with getting more deals.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Wait, so you're saying I have to work hard for two whole weeks.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Two weeks for two weeks, which working hard.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

No, yeah, I think I'm just gonna get a job instead.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Have fun, have fun with that. Yeah. Yes, no, that sounds great. And realistically, those two weeks, too, that's like maybe five hours. Like all you do is you find a couple of inspiration, you do your research, like figure out what the industry looks like, of course, but then just create a couple examples of like what you think it should look like. You can literally reference what other people have already done, and then you just do the volume of pitching, right? Like however many people you reach out to just keeps upping your chances of getting a response. And after that first one, you'll be set.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah. And so I want to answer my own question about how I've seen it changed because I started with tech UGC five and a half months ago, right? When I got into UGC, basically the framework I was given by the coaching group I joined was to start with tech UGC because it's the quickest and fastest way to make money. I started making money in in four days. Like when I started, there was no such thing as a view minimum. It didn't matter how many views your your video got, you see, you still got paid out. I would say now, maybe 50 to 60 percent of companies, you have to get at least a a thousand views on a video, which like it's a little worse for creators, but like it makes sense for these brands. They're not just gonna keep leaking money. You have to learn the skill of being able to at least get a thousand views, which is fairly simple. So, where do you see the UGC space going in the future as it continues to evolve?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

And these companies actually need to make money on their yeah, on their I think this answer scares people, but I try my best to make them realize like what the upside can actually look like. I think more and more companies keep going over to only doing performance pay. And it seems really scary, right? Because I hear that a lot of people want the highest retainer possible. Um, and we can both go on a long rant about this, but like it's not always the best thing, right? Like, if you're not gonna get the most amount of performance, um, like incentive to keep wanting to go viral, your pay is actually getting cap at a certain point because even if you have a video that starts to do really well, maybe the bonus only goes up to a certain amount. Um, and a higher retainer, a $2,000 retainer sounds amazing. But if you can also have enough views on an account because you know what you're doing and you've really worked at it, you can make so much more than $2,000 within that month within one video, right? Like the same way that I got paid very high performance for one that did really well. Now, do I think it's extremely easy to get 40 million views all the time? No, right? Like if I've done it twice, great accomplishments, but even a couple of times a year, that's a pretty nice bonus. Right? Like, I mean, it adds up that covers way more than a $2,000 retainer would even in an entire year. Um, and it obviously makes sense for the brand because then they're only paying you when they're actually making money on it as well. Whereas with a retainer, if you're getting paid that much and then you're not even performing in the videos for them and they're not getting return on that, you can see why they would want to switch over to performance pay.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Exactly. And so I spend the majority of my career in sales. And the one thing I learned is that the people who have the most job security, the people who will never be fired, and the people who will never have to worry about making monies are the ones who can make other people money. So this fantasy of coming into UGC and not being able to do well at all and still get paid, it's nice. But at the end of the day, if you can learn the skill to get views and make companies money, you will never go hungry and you will always have an amazing life, no matter what the landscape of UGC goes goes into, because you now know how to generate companies revenue. And a lot of people will say, use the excuse, oh, well, it's harder now because now there's view minimums. You should look at that as a good thing. If you want to make $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 a month, I'm sorry, but you have to learn skills. There is no way that you can consistently easy make six figures a year. So you should be happy that the people who don't want to try are going to get moved out and now it makes you even more valuable.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah. Do you see a difference as a like product and a tech creator in like how that manifests in the way that they pay their deals?

SPEAKER_00 23:19

So basically, what she's asking is I also do traditional UGC where I get paid three, you know, three to five hundred dollars for a single video. Um, you know, I I see that almost going away too in the future in favor of commission-based UGC. Yes. Because I may get paid $500 for one video, but I have no incentive to make a good video. And it's like, okay, it's it's nice, but why would they why would they not just want to work with someone on a commission basis? And then you have like platforms like Tribe where you do commission-based UGC for products, but the upside is so much higher. Me as a salesperson, like I will turn down now like a $300 deal just to make more tribe videos, even though most of my videos on Tribe don't make me any money, or maybe they only make me 20 to 50 bucks. I have multiple videos that have made me $1,000, $2,000, $3,000. And now I have quote unquote passive income every day. I look on my Tribe app and before I even wake up, there's $80 in it because my ad's making sales. And a conversation that I see on Instagram a lot right now is people complaining about platforms like Tribe. They'll complain that they make a few videos and they're not getting paid. I'm like, all right, well, if your videos were good and converted to sales, you would get paid. So instead, you're gonna do do traditional UGC where you have to do so much outreach and fight with 10,000 other creators for your $200 deal. But if you don't have the skills to make a video that's gonna sell, you're not gonna get a retainer. And that's why the majority of traditional UGC creators don't have retainers and they're constantly fighting for new deals because their videos don't work. And if you are doing good with traditional UGC, you'd probably do good on Tribe. But I do get it. Like I'll I'm pro-creator more than I'm pro-brand, right? If you can go scoop some money from these brands and not perform, go do it. Yeah, by all means, go do it. Be my guess. But I'm just being realistic with you. You eventually have to learn the skills to make videos that get companies' views and sales.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Yeah. Well, and I think if you're riding on, you know, not doing any performance work too, and we know that the industry keeps shifting, like you're eventually going to hit a wall when they stop having as many deals that are just one-offs and they realize they could pay someone per for for performance instead and get a better return on their end.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

All right, let's go into this, let's go into some more uh hot questions about the UGC space. Oh boy. So sometimes you'll hear people saying, Oh, what about AI replacing UGC creators? What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 25:49

There's always going to be a degree of the videos that brands push out are going to be AI. Like, especially the easier that it gets, the better these videos get. Like, of course, it's it's gonna be there and that's inevitable. But I think the reason why organic especially works so well is because you're getting that like human-to-human experience where it feels so natural. There's usually like a humor like layer of the video. There's some like references or like hand movements or something on the camera that just indicates it's like a very personal thing. Oh, all of my best videos performed because there's this like deeper storyline and very human aspect to it that I just don't think is ever going to be able to come across in an AI video. You don't get that human creativity. Whenever I'm like talking to a founder and they're interested in doing AI content, you don't get as much creativity from a vast amount of people when you have one person or two people running AI ads. It might create the same number of videos, but that's two people's thoughts and ideas instead of a team of 40 who is all iterating with each other, talking back and forth, coming up with new ideas. I think that the power of having multiple people come up with ideas all the time is so much better than trying to replace it with one or two brains that just can't do as much output.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Yeah. And if that's something that you're worried about or something that's maybe preventing you from going all in, let me ask you, what do you think about AI ads?

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

People despise them. As far as I know, society freaking hates AI. And as soon as um they see an AI ad, it causes massive distrust from the company. So, one, do brands want to risk that? Currently, AI ads are horrible. Now, I don't want to say they can never become as good as humans, UGC, because you know, maybe they will.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Yeah, we'll we'll eat our words in two years if we say that.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

But the thing is, is that you still need the marketing brain behind it. Someone still has to come up with the concepts. So that's why that's why I think we're both stressing is that you want to actually learn skills. And that that's what's really gonna allow people to dive into UGC, be successful for for many years to come, is building the skills necessary to ultimately generate the these companies' money. Awesome. Well, Sydney, you've obviously had a ton of success as a UGC creator yourself. So what what have you been doing recently? I I know you coach a bunch of people. Like, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah. So last November I created my first ever community called Creator Era. Um, and what I do is I help women get into doing this kind of tech UGC work, which I really love because I think, as you said before, it's the best industry for creators to start with because it's very easy and they need creators so bad right now. There's such a lack of the amount of creators in the market compared to the amount of brands. And so it's really great for me to be able to kind of teach those skills to be able to like have your own marketing ideas and kind of start from zero and learn how to do that over time, um, along with just like helping them find the right brands and kind of find their way in an industry that isn't super defined yet. And so there's a lot of questions with like even contracts or just trusting a brand on like what's actually a good deal, what's not, and how do I do this well?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Awesome. So, like walk, walk us through the process of how you started that community and then like what does it look like now?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Yeah, I mean, it's changed a lot over time, as anything does when you're trying to figure out like there's an idea of what I want, but then what does the customer, what does the student actually want out of this, and what do they struggle the most with learning? Um, the idea wasn't even a hundred percent my own in the beginning. I had been working really closely with a brand that I, one of the first ones I started with, um, doing kind of like UGC like campaign management with them. And so I'd already been for over a year, like helping their team get better, coaching their team on how to make little video improvements, how to be a better creator, coming up with new ideas. Um, the first month that I started with them, their view average with their creator team was like 8 million views. And within the first month of me working with them, we did 60 million over that first month. Dang. So it's like, okay, I'm kind of good at this, right? Like, I yeah, I'm kind of okay at coming up with new video ideas and helping people kind of figure out their angle. Um, and so after a few months, she came to me and she was like, You're really good at this. You know, you could help teach other people and like teach them what video angles do well and kind of help them get into this. And so it just started with that. Like I made an initial kind of like learning and everything that I knew, trying to write down the tips and the tricks and the video ideas that I have and kind of how I, you know, go through that. Um, and then it has turned into what is now like the 300 women that I've helped teach and help get into it. With some of them like have crazy, crazy numbers in a much shorter time than I did because they had all that in front of them, which is really cool to watch.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

It's so nice to be able to have someone who's already walked the path help you.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

I wish I had that when I started, like it'd be so so much easier, it'd go so much faster.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

You you have all the tips and tricks that you can now give to the girls. When I got into UGC, I joined a mentorship literally on day one because I was like, I don't have time to waste. Like, I'm trying to make money WhatsApp. So it is so nice to kind of get that framework. So, what do you teach girls in the group?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah, I mean, from the basics of like what is this, why do the companies even pay for this, like what does a video look like, and kind of just get a better understanding for what these products actually are. What is of like B2B versus B2C? Like, what are all these terms that people throw around in tech UGC? You gotta learn those, right? And then just kind of actually getting them their first foot in the door. And so I like talked about earlier how once you get your first deal, everything becomes a lot easier because all these brands can see that you kind of know what you're doing and you have some experience. So a lot of it is really working on how to get that first deal, which comes down to knowing the industry, doing your research on what the videos look like, creating really good examples, and then the outreach itself. And so, like, what does a good pitch look like? Um, how should I be approaching these companies? Where can I find them? Who am I reaching out to? And then just helping them like put their head down, get the reps in and get that first deal so that we can really focus on actual content and then really start making the money.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Got it. Yeah, that you have to get a baseline understanding of the industry, then you have to understand how to get deals, then you have to understand how to perform for the deals. Yeah. And if I understand right, you you probably also link them up with companies you've worked with, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Yeah, yeah. We we have quite a few. I mean, there's definitely not a lack um of companies that like directly reach out to me um and are looking for creators. I'm sure you're familiar with the amount of DMs that you get every day.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

It's so crazy. There's this funny paradox in UGC where once you kind of get over the hill of struggling, you see that I have all these brands, literally thousands, saying that they can't find any UGC creators. Yes. And then you see all these UGC creators on TikTok talking about I can't find work. Oh, I've been trying to do UGC for two months and I've only made a thousand dollars. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_01 32:36

I almost wonder how. I know. Because it's like when you're the person that's sees all the brands, you're like, how are you not finding them? Like, where is the disconnect here?

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Genuinely, what are you doing? I I think what it is is that people tell themselves this story in their head. They see everyone else doing it online and they're like, oh, well, I don't think it'll really work for me. So they one, they don't know what to do, but then they also don't put in the effort necessary because then it allows them to justify to themselves, like, oh, it doesn't really work. So they don't have to feel bad about not succeeding.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

I wish more people who were just starting would make more content about their journey and like really talk about that beginning of like what the first month or two looks like, and people would see it because they would feel like they relate to that more and understand like how much work actually goes into it. Um, and I feel like sometimes when I'm posting content too, like I feel that fault a little bit of like I need to talk more about what that beginning looked like.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Um, I mean, that's what I did when I started. I literally actually you found me. You were probably one of my like first hundred followers or something. Um, I started documenting my journey from from literally day one.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

You found me because I made some video about like smoothies and anytime that someone starts like their first like beginning journey, I will probably be your first 50 followers because I find them, they come up on my page because all my content's UGC and they're my favorite thing to watch. And then I love because for the like I got to watch you do it too. Watching like the first three months of them if they actually keep doing it like slowly and then all at once, like start to get really into the industry and make crazy money.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Okay, Sydney. So let's say someone is starting UGC today. What would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yeah. I think you can do anything a hundred times over. A lot of people underestimate um how much they can put into something, and then they also overestimate how much it takes to actually hit their goal. Um, especially with this kind of work, it's so much more achievable than what you think it might be when you're first looking at it. And that person that you see succeeding, even the two of us, have not in retrospect been doing it for that long, and you're way closer to that line than you think that you are. And so before you write it off as something that you can't do or something that's unachievable, try it and try it a hundred times over. Post a hundred videos, post for two different companies or three or four, and try it for just a short amount of time, and you will change your framework more than you think that you could in the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Yeah. So we both have seen so many people succeed with this. Whether it be a 17-year-old who's in high school, whether it be someone who dropped out of college and now gets to have their own income, whether it's someone working a low-income job out of college and now doesn't have to go into an office anymore, whether it's a uh stay-at-home mom who wants some extra income for the family, uh, maybe a dad who got laid off. Literally every single type of person has succeeded in this because think about it. When you're making videos, there's there's gonna be somebody like you, and there's a product for people like you. Yes. So this is really achievable by anybody. You have to believe in yourself enough to you know put in the work for long enough that you can succeed. Um, find other people that you look up to and and get their advice, right? That that's the quickest way to go faster with anything is finding a mentor and getting the quick path to success. Sydney never even had to get a corporate job. I had a seven-year corporate job and got into this. Um so no matter who you are, you can succeed with this. And I hope that you believe in yourself enough to make it happen because it really is special, not only to be able to financially support yourself, but just to know um that that you have the stability to make money on your own and be proud of yourself for accomplishing something.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Yeah, I have a really like wide range of like personality types and people too that I've worked with, whether that's like the college girl who's still is in her sophomore gear and is making like crazy money compared to where she doesn't even know what she's gonna do after college now because this has changed her perspective, or to the stay-at-home mom who like is actually making her own income for the first time, like very different persona types, but they still both do really well, just with different products and like different types of content that they like to post, but they both still figure it out in their own way.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Awesome. Well, how can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Yeah, so you can go to my Instagram or my TikTok. It's at buy sid, and then my community is called Creator Era. You can find it over there.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Awesome. Well, I'm gonna put Sydney's links down in the description. Uh, she she's super awesome, she's helped so many people. She's one of the best tech UGC creators. So looking forward to seeing you guys on the next episode. UGC is so much fun, and talk to you next time.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Bye.