Why an Influencer With 400K+ Followers Is Going All-In on UGC | Zach Rance E7

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the UGC Industry Podcast, the show that brings creators, brands, and everyone building the UGC space into one conversation. I'm Brandon Heen, and each week I sit down with the people shaping this industry, from creators landing brand deals to the founders and agencies behind them. Let's get into it. On today's episode, we have Zach Rance. So Zach has been doing social media for over 12 years, has over 400,000 followers, and even appeared on the show Big Brother back in the day. And now he's been getting into the UGC space because of the huge potential he sees in it. Welcome to the show, Zach. What's up, dude? Thanks for having me. Excited to get into it. Let's go. So, Zach, how have you seen the landscape of social media and being an influencer change over the years as someone who was a traditional style influencer?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah, back in 2014, I was on Big Brother, like you shared, and I got off the show with over 300,000 followers. And day one, I was getting inbound brand deals. So the first one I ever did was Smile Sciences. It was like a teeth whitening brand, and they paid me, I think, $2,000 for one post. It was before reels were even a thing on Instagram. So I literally just put it in my mouth, took a picture, wrote a caption, said, buy Smile Sciences, use my code whatever. Um, and over the 10 years after that, I was doing a lot of brand deals and yada yada. Earlier this year, I had a huge brand reach out to me and said, Zach, we want to pay you $750 for two videos. And we know this is below your rate, but you don't have to post it on your page. I think this was in January of this year. And I was like, okay, I mean, that's fair. Sounds good. And I made them the videos. And then, like, two weeks later, my algorithm showed me Tribe and UGC. And I was like, oh, this is a real thing. This isn't just like me getting lucky that I am getting $750 for two videos that I don't even have to post on my page. Long story short, started learning more about UGC. And now I'm going all in on just making high converting ads for brands that I do not have to post on my page. I'm highly confident that these huge brands are going to be reallocating their marketing budgets from working with huge influencers to working with microinfluencers or even people that don't have followers that they can create these ads, give it to the brand, the brand runs it as ads, and they get paid a percentage of GMV or traditional UGC, just a fixed cost per video. Super hyped about it.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, that's so crazy that someone who's been so involved with social media marketing that you just heard about UGC this year. That just goes to show how new of a thing it is.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

It's funny how you said you were doing social media before reels. Cause because both of us were on, I guess, a little bit of the older demographic, where I remember before there were too. But what was social media like back then?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

It was really just pictures and you only see content from the people that you follow. So that was kind of the biggest thing was like the only way you could really grow on social media is if A, you were celebrity, like you had fame without social media, or B, you collabed or were in pictures with other famous people. Now, obviously, we're in interest-based media. So if you make a video about dog training, you're gonna have people that are interested in learning how to train their dogs. And that's obviously been the biggest difference in social media, and it's made the playing field of social media a lot more fair. If you make good content that people actually watch, you will reach non-followers, you'll get followers, and you'll grow personal brands. That's been the biggest change is just like going from algorithm is now just very fair. Did you always know that you wanted to be in social media? I went in and out of it over those last 12 years. So right off the show in Big Brother, I had like, I went on like the reality TV like circuit where I was getting paid a thousand bucks or two thousand bucks to show up to clubs or whatever, and thousand to two thousand bucks for Instagram pictures and things like that. And I was probably making like 10k a month doing that for six months after the show. But once the new cast dropped and the next season was being promoted, no one cared about me anymore. And my inbox went from multiple inbounds a week to no inbounds for a month. And I remember being like, hey, I need to figure something out. So I got into a career in real estate, then I got into a career in selling life insurance. I've always been in sales, but I created content for real estate. So I was making like property tour YouTube videos back in like 2017 before any realtor was doing it. And it didn't really generate a lot of leads for me, but I had fun making the videos and I enjoyed making content. I got a lot better at speaking on camera and it became easier for me. It became a faster process, and I knew that this was a really good long-term play to just be good at social media. Um, but it wasn't until 2020 when COVID hit where I was like, all right, I gotta go all in on having an online business. And I remember it was like March, April 2020. I was like, I am super into personal growth and self-development. I'm running marathons, I like living a healthy lifestyle. This is what I like talking about on social media. And I became a certified life coach. I paid like four grand to be certified and go through the whole process of like doing it the right way. And I made a bunch of YouTube videos. And one of my videos on YouTube was a video of me saying, All right, guys, I need to generate leads for my life coach business. So I'm gonna make an Instagram real. Here's how I'm gonna make the Instagram real. And that video, it didn't go viral, but for YouTube, it got like a couple thousand views, which is really good on a channel that didn't have a lot of subscribers. And I had people reaching out, hey Zach, I'm a coach too. Can you coach me how to make content? Oh, so the video, let me tell you half a subject. The video hit like 900,000 views of me like doing the video a lot. And people are like, yo, can you coach me on how to make content? I was like, Well, I don't do that, but you know, if you're willing to pay me a thousand bucks, I'll coach you. And one of the people said yes. I was like, all right, this is my new business. I'm gonna coach people on how to make content. That was six years ago. So since then, I started a content agency, started multiple pages. I have over 400,000 followers across all my pages, across all my platforms. To answer your question, I I didn't always want to be on social media, but it's just something I like doing. I feel like I do have a skill set for it and I enjoy making content. I genuinely enjoy the process.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So isn't it so cool how you can do all this from your home now? Like you were saying, you would get paid a thousand dollars to show up to a club. People all in your business, media, all that. Now you can just just straight do this from home.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

So, what do your days look like now? So I wake up at like seven o'clock, I'll go on a bike ride for like 30 minutes, and then around like 7:45, I'll drink some coffee, chug some water, and then I go outside and I start making Instagram reels. I'll create content from like 8 15 a.m. until like 11 a.m. And I'll get out at least like at least 10 pieces of content, piece of content and like a YouTube video. And then usually from like 11 till I'd say about like two or three-ish, I do my coaching calls. So I coach people on how to grow their personal brand. And then the afternoons dedicated for UGC content. So create content in the morning for my personal brand, middle of the day is more so like money-making activities, coaching people, generating leads for whatever, and then working on my content agency. And then anywhere from like four to like six thirty is when I'll do my UGC stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah. So one of the biggest problems that people have who want to get into UGC is that they just don't get out enough volume. They don't know what kind of videos to make. They get so stuck in their head, it takes them an entire day just to make one or two videos. And you said you do 10 or 15 videos within that two hour span in the morning. How do you get out such a high volume of videos?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Repetition. It just gets faster. In the beginning, it would take me like 15 minutes to edit a talking head video, right? But once you're you get the muscle memory with your thumbs and you get good at splitting trimming and you get good at knowing how to overlay stuff, it just becomes second nature. The more videos you put out, the faster you're gonna get. And then also it's like, you know, operating from a creator, from a creator mindset. Like when I'm scrolling through my feed, I'm not scrolling to be entertained. I'm scrolling to say, hey, can I recreate this video? Does this have a topic that has a strong signal of demand that I can recreate from like a different angle? Is this a video that I can repurpose somehow in some way, shape, or form? It's like, what comes first? The chicken or the egg? Like, do you need to like figure out how to make a bunch of videos first, or do you just do it and get a little better each and every time? The answer is always just like putting in the reps. So there's no secret sauce. There's no like step-by-step process. You just gotta get in the reps as quickly as possible.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yeah, and at the end of the day, when you're creating content like UGC, where the main goal is to sell a product or service, not just to look pretty like a travel YouTube video, maybe. You don't need these fancy videos with camera angles, all the different subs stuff like that, where you're setting up tripods. You really lean into a lot more of the low content. So, what's your thought process around creating videos that actually sell?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, and just to clarify, my last answer was more so for like personal brand yapping content. For UGC, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to not only make high converting videos, but also put out a lot of volume. So I recently, and I'm hoping this is gonna work. It's been about a week or so. I hired a script writer. So I hired like a creative strategist. Wow. From the US? No, Philippines.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

So what I'm doing is right now, I'll go on tribe, I'll look at the creative brief, I'll send it to my creative strategist. She will generate 10 scripts with shot lists, and then I will just copy the script, put it in the teleprompter function, Instagram edits, rip the 10 talking heads for that brand, and then she sends me a shot list, and then I'll bang out the shot list, and then I give it to my editor, and I have my editor and my creative strategist in a group chat. So now they're working together to make sure that the B-roll is matching the script. Um and it's working out well, dude. Like I submitted six videos on Tribe yesterday, and this was like the third day we've done it. Goal for October is to put out over a hundred videos on Tribe. So I'm confident that with the creative strategist writing the scripts and coming up with the shot list and my editor and her working closely together, I'm confident I can do that. But your question was how to make high converting ads. I think the most important thing is making sure that the video comes off authentic and just like dropping more CTs. And look, I don't want to act like I'm an expert in knowing how to make videos convert because we're all still trying to figure it out. And there are videos that are just like they're outliers. Like that video just fucking cracked, and Buddy Untried made $10,000 from some running shorts, right? Like we see that. Like, was that video super calculated? No. Is it a great video? Absolutely. Did he do a good job making the video? For sure. Kid is a stud, but some videos just crack for no reason, and you gotta put out the volume to make sure that you increase your chances of having a video that actually pops off. Yeah, 100%. So, how do you go about choosing the brands that you work with on Tribe? I'm still trying to figure that out. But you know what though? I'm really good at posting my own content for my personal brand. So I get a ton of inbounds like you, bro. I get a ton of inbounds, dude. And what's better, Tribe or traditional UGC? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out too, but I like knowing that I'm gonna make 500 bucks on a video. I really like when a brand says, yo, Zach, can you just like nail this body in three hooks for 500 bucks? I'm like, yeah, I can definitely do that. Yeah, yeah, it's chill. Um, but how do I, how do I choose what brands to work with? You know, I like working with brands that I want to use that I believe in because I just feel like that comes off more when I'm delivering the script. Um, but I also want to work with brands that I know are spending a lot of money on ads. I don't know if there's a way to figure that out. Obviously, in Tribe, you can see like how much they've paid out to creators, how many creators are in the tribe, but you kind of just like know brands that like, yo, this is a seven, eight-figure business. Or like you can tell when the brand's like just starting off. So obviously, you want to work with brands that are spending a lot of money. How do you figure that out? I don't know. Do you know how to figure that out?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Or there's some statistics in Tribe where you can see how much they've paid out creators. So they're adding a bunch more analytics. Also, you can just straight up ask. Almost 80 to 90 percent of the time, they'll tell you how much they're spending on ads. Okay. And and if they don't tell you, I'm kind of like it's a little bit of a red flag. One time a company didn't answer me and I said, Okay, well, is it at least 20k a day? And they said yes. You do that right in the chat, right on tribe. Yep. Yeah, okay, good. That's good to do that. Right on tribe. Or or if I'm with agencies and getting deals through that, um, they'll typically tell the agency and then and then we'll know. You mentioned two of the three things that I look for when choosing a brand. Do I actually like the product? Are they spending a lot on ads? And then the third for me is is that company actually gonna coach you? Because a company who will give you insights into their specific brand, their specific hook angles that are working well is extremely valuable. It's obviously useful to have a third-party coach that can teach you the overall UGC strategy, but having a specific brand teach you stuff is really helpful as well. And so I'm curious, you're obviously already very experienced in social media. UGC is on the newer side. How do you go about educating yourself on the types of videos that you want to make?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I feel like it's really just in the reps. Like the more videos you make, the better you're gonna get at making videos because you're gonna see which videos are actually performing and which ones aren't. So I feel like just repetition over everything.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

You look at a lot of data, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Yeah, I mean, when you're posting a lot of content, you have a lot of data to look at. When I post 10 videos a day on my personal brand saves page, and I see which videos are getting more shares or which ones are getting more saves, or like that, those are clear indications that like people want to reference this video later, or they're seeing a lot of value in this video. And then I just repackage, recycle, regurgitate it in a different way with different visuals and a different hook. And that obviously is a good way to get a lot of data back because you're putting out volume. But when it comes to UGC videos, something that I like doing is having a call to action in the first 10-15 seconds. Like, like, yo, this iPhone is freaking dope because of XYZ. I go get it right now before they sell out. The reason why this phone is so awesome because of these features, these benefits, and it solves this problem. So I think having multiple call to actions, but like subliminal or soft CTAs are good. But yeah, dude, what are your thoughts on like how to make better videos?

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah, so one thing I do is I'll go look on the the tribe top 100 and I'll look for formats that are working, but then I'll use formats in different niches and play it over into the niche that I'm using. Um, and actually something I was just doing this morning, so it's fresh on my mind, is I'm about to have a friend with me tomorrow to film a bunch of skits. Guy and girl skits do really, really well. If you can make that happen, it works really well. I'm basically asking Claude for different formats for skits. For example, reaction style skit, story time skit, myth versus reality, the argument skit, the quiz format, the tutorial, hot take format, checklist, a bet format. That's 10 formats right there where I can go make all these videos with my friend and come up with essentially limitless ideas for videos.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

I feel like that's like uh what takes a creator from like being really good to being great is knowing how to do multiple formats. Because everyone gets really comfortable in their own format, but if you're able to do multiple formats, like that's just that's really gonna level you up.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Yeah, and creating unique videos. And it's very common advice out there. People say, Oh, just go copy the other videos. But if you're only copying the other videos on that tribe account, it's all gonna be the same thing, right? Like, I'm sure we've all seen the formats. I just bought this and now I have to return it. This is good, this is bad. And like, yes, that those are are working, but if you can find unique outlier videos that no one's ever seen before, that's really how you're gonna break through and get those super top performing videos.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, that's smart.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah, how do you how do you generate ideas or do you just let it come to you?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

I always think of like the framework of like problem solution before after, story, testimonial, comparison, or demonstration. I feel like those are like the five main frameworks. For example, I I do a lot of work with a mouth tape brand. So I'm like, all right, what's the problem solution? The problem is my wife hates me because I'm snoring every night. So what's the solution mouth? Before, like before I was wearing mouth tape, I was sleeping like shit, but now I actually sleep really good because of the XYZ scientific reasons behind nose breathing as opposed to mouth breathing. Demonstration, I'd be like, all right, so this mouth tape has been so amazing. It's helped me level up my sleep. I just peel it off like this, open it like this, put it right over my mouth, and then I can show like the air flex technology or like how it fits on people with like facial hair, whatever. Um, and then story testimonial, something like, gosh, man, I I cannot believe I never used mouth tape. And now I started using it, and I kid you not, like my sleep has gotten so much better. My sleep sleep score on my whoop went from 70 to averaging 85 every single night. Right. So just like taking those five frameworks that problem solution before, after, story testimonial, demonstration, and comparison, and just using those five for five frameworks and just using that exact same product for those five frameworks. So that's that's right now how mentally I am going about my step-by-step process to making UGC video. That could change over time, but I feel like that's working well for me right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, and you can tell because of the reps you put in, that the stuff just comes to you. That's the thing. When when you when you start making videos over and over again, especially if you're making videos for the same brand, you're gonna come up with so many ideas of things to do. Something you say in the middle of the video could end up being your next hook. It's just so fun. I feel like we're so lucky to get to do this. Like if you think about all the other jobs or like ways, ways to make money out there. A lot of people, they you know, it's really hard to get over the hump. Or I say like having the wool pulled off your eyes of how to make money with social media. It's hard to get started. But once you do, it's like, man, I can't imagine a better life and better lifestyle. So I know you mentioned people going to an office, doing all this and that. Quick interruption here. This video was brought to you by RTech, the all-in-one platform for UGC creators. So, as a U UGC creator, there are really three things you need. One is a suite of tools to make you more efficient from editing, tracking your deals, tracking your finances so that you're not hopping around from a million different apps. Two, the knowledge and coaching and training from people who've already been there and done that. And then three, access to deals. RTEC provides you all three of those and and was built by some of the OGs from the UGC space who understand everything that UGC creators know what they need to be successful. You can go hop on and try it now for free. Just click the link below. I know you you mentioned making videos with your wife, and I believe you said she does social media too. What's your guys' dynamic with all that?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

So she does like Amazon affiliate stuff. She's been doing that for years where she just like promotes deals on TikTok that are like percent off on Amazon. Um, but as far as like the dynamic goes, I mean, because she's a creator too, I feel like she's helping me with videos, I'm helping her with videos. So we have a lot of fun with it and we get so much free stuff. Like so cool. Like I feel like the UPS and the FedEx guys hate us because they're always like dropping off massive boxes at our house every single day. I feel like having a partner, my wife, who also loves social media and is an entrepreneur as well, it has is beneficial for both of us.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, 100%. I can totally relate to having the mailbox full. So another interesting thing about you is you work with Jake Paul's company, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:07

I've worked with them a few times. I don't have like a current contract with them right now, but yeah, I have worked with them. What was that experience like? Because that was a traditional influencer deal. That was a traditional influencer deal, and they did run it as ads. And you know what? I this is something that I don't see a lot of people talking about that I really believe in that I'm gonna start sharing more is over-delivering to brands. I feel like a lot of people they get super cocky and they're like, my videos are so good, it's worth 800 bucks a video. And like, if a brand contracts me for one video, they're gonna get one video. I always, and look, creators might not like hearing me say this, but I always over-deliver to brands. So, for example, W was a perfect example. We agreed on an amount of payment for me to post on my page. It was a traditional influencer marketing deal. And they sent me the product and I made the video and I made another video and I made another video. And I said, Hey, here are three videos. Which one do you want me to post? I personally think this video is gonna perform the best, and this is the one we should go with. But these other two videos, you guys can have these and you can run these as ads. And they were like, oh my God, Zach, this is amazing. And then what happened? Two weeks later, I got invited to go to Jake Paul's ranch. And I got to meet Jake Paul and I got to go on a retreat with a bunch of other influencers. I got to have a good time with Jake Paul, and we lit off a bunch of fireworks, and we did like really cool things at his ranch, right? I wouldn't say do that with every single brand. You want to show the brand that you're motivated and you're anxious to not only get them the deliverables that they're paying for, but continue to create and establish and nurture a relationship long term. Look, we all are trying to optimize, I'm gonna say 20K a month. I feel like that's kind of the number that everyone like talks about. I'm just gonna throw that out there for conversation purposes.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

It used to be 10K a month a few years ago, but now I feel like that the bottom line is 20K.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Yeah, you know, like every UGC creator like talks about, you know, 20K a month, 20K a month. Like I'm trying to make 20K a month, right? Doing UGC specifically, the best way to do it is, you know, work with 10 brands that pay 2K. That would be ideal in a perfect world. But you could also work with 20 brands that pay a thousand, right? So I feel like let's each, as our creator, optimize for like a portfolio of brand of brands that we work with every single month. Because that we don't have to learn new scripts and we don't have to like figure out a new way to make this content. Let's let's create loyalty with the brand. And it's a two-way street. They create loyalty with us, we create loyalty with them. And just quick anecdote yesterday, Lucas Pactor did a Zoom call, and there was like 2,000 people on the Zoom call, and it was mainly, yeah, it was mainly for brands. So he did one for creators like a week ago or so. I missed that one. I wish I was on it. But the one he did yesterday was with the CEO of Comfort, Hudson, and then the CEO of Cal AI, this kid Zach, who's 19 years old that exited Cal AI for like 10 nine figures or something. And they were just talking about how brands like you need to be loyal to these creators. Like, stop trying to find A ton of creators and find 10 creators that are die-hard cult followers of your brand and take care of those creators. And I we we love hearing that. That's such a good thing to hear because if we're making good videos for a brand, we want the brand to be loyal to us so we can continue to make videos for them. So I guess the whole message of that was kind of long-winded, but it's like over deliver to these brands. Show the brands that you really want to work with them and you're not just like doing a transaction of a video for 500 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yep. And I would actually say my goal is I would love to do 20k a month. Actually, I did do 20k a month with UGC this month, but it was it was through a variety of deals. If I could do that with just two or three companies on Tribe, that would be amazing. Yeah, right. Because then you can just keep making the same videos, you know, over and over again. So I'm curious because not a lot of people on this show yet have as much of the influencer background, right? People just get into this with UGC as their first thing. What kind of commentary do you hear in the influencer world about this new new movement?

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah, influence influencers are cooked. If you have a million followers, you're cooked, bro. Like it's that is like a hundred percent public opinion. That is a hundred percent what the stats are showing. A hundred percent the trend is moving away from paying an influencer ten thousand dollars to post a picture or a video on their page. It's good for us, dude.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Yeah, it's almost like the playing fields are being leveled. You have to, you know, learn a you know, a new skill of being able to create this content that converts in the forms of UGC. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Because like influencers, like, yo, you post a picture or a video, we know it's an ad. Like, we're not we're not buying that with your promo code. And also, here's something to think about too. Like, let's take uh I'm gonna throw a random company, BPN, for example. If you know what BPN is, it's a supplement brand, okay? And I'm just gonna throw them out. I'm not, I'm not coming at them. They're a great brand, all the influencers are great, they're all cool dudes, they're all crushing it in their individual sports or whatever, no hate. But they have sponsored athletes, so they have affiliate codes, all right? So let's say affiliate John, for example. He has uh his his code is John, and if you use his code, you get 15% off. And let's say 10% of that is going to the influencer, okay? So if you use John's code, you're gonna get 15% off. But if you literally go to the website, they offer you 20% off as soon as you go on the website. So the brands are are are being forced to undercut their influencers. Wow. So if you use, you know, the trend twins code for Gymshark, yeah, you know, you're actually not even gonna get as much percent off as you would if you went to the website directly. Wow. Because these brands don't want to pay the influencers. Yeah. They just want the brand recognition.

unknown 24:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

They just want to be crazy. They just they just want to be associated with the trend twins or Togi or C Bum or Fonzian or you know, Noah Roulette, like these these influencers that like have cult like followings, the affiliate model is completely broken. And uh influencers are cooked. It's moving towards performance-based UGC. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

All right, so like I was saying before, both you and I are in a little bit of an older demographic than what a lot you you see, a lot of like UGC influencers, quote unquote, who are in their early 20s. What do you have to say to the people who want to get into UGC who are over the age of 30? I mean, they have more of an advantage.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

The older you are, the more valuable you are, for sure. Because everyone's a 22-year-old, you know, triathlete. You know, so it's it's it's easier to get deals and be unique and stand out and have an unfair advantage the older you are. So, like, dude, like women or men that are like 55 plus, those are the most valuable UGC creators, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Yeah, absolutely. Because the older you get, the less competition you're gonna have on social media. And another another unique thing why I really think people in their 30s do so well at UGC is because that they're out of like the mass UGC creator range in the 20s. A lot of guys in their 30s who are successful, well spoken, they're like in the peak of their career earning years. So they're typically in jobs that are quote unquote good enough, making 200, 300k in sales, finance, or consulting. So it would be a big cutback to dive into entrepreneurship. And it's almost getting a little what people will consider like late to kind of leave that career. So there's like there's really not many of us. And you know, people 50 plus, a lot of them are retired doing stuff at home. But this is, I feel like the perfect group. And the way we connected is because you found me looking for a for a deal.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Dude, it would it was funny how I how we connected on Instagram. And now we've spoken a lot over the last couple months. I feel like we've gotten really close this year, which is cool. And this podcast is awesome. And and by the way, that this podcast is so fucking dope. I you have amazing guests already, dude. And and I'm hyped to see where this goes. But um, I did want to comment off of like what you said about the people that are in their peak earning years at like a high six-figure salary job. There's two mindsets when people think about UGC. And most people don't even know what UGC is. If you're a UGC creator watching this, obviously you are. Like, we are in a bubble. Most of the world doesn't even realize that this is a thing. Everyone knows that people sell things on social media, but explaining UGC to someone is really hard for them to grasp and understand. So it feels like this is saturated to us, but you guys, not even close to saturated. Um ask anyone you know, and no one will know what it is. Yeah. People are like, oh, I'm not making a silly video for an iMask. That's so beneath me. What that a $12 iMask? Like, I'm not doing that. I'm so much better than that, right? But you can make $10,000 selling this iMac. Literally. So I just feel like there's two mindsets, though. The one mindset is, oh, that's beneath me. I'm not actually gonna make silly videos for like $25 products. And then there's other people that are like, hey, like if I make an ad that converts super high for this, the brand is gonna continue to put money behind it and I'm gonna get paid for the next six to nine months.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

It's incredible. It's it's the trap of being too comfortable and and not not wanting to kind of venture off. And I know a lot of people in that same situation and they don't hate their jobs, but they certainly wish they could be doing something they were passionate about.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

But yeah, and speaking of passion, like you gotta you gotta like making videos, you gotta enjoy this. You know, so you know, if if you're someone that's watching this, you're like, oh, making a video feels like a short, don't get into UGC. I'm gonna be really honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Yeah, literally, no, I'll get I'll get comments sometimes on my videos, and they're like, Can I do this without showing my face? I'm like, go do something else. Learn how to quad code.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

You really gotta you gotta love it, you gotta want to make videos, you gotta enjoy the process. So that's the only way you'll be successful on social media in general and and UGC especially.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yeah. And so I'm gonna ask a question that a lot of UGC creators want to know, and I really believe is the most valuable thing for them. And honestly, I gatekeep a lot of this stuff, except for inside my coaching group, because I just think it's one of the most valuable things a UGC creator can do, and I feel like I have needed to gatekeep it. But I want to hear your perspective because you have just started a UGC personal brand page where you talk where you talk about UGC. And I mean, it's really one of the best things you can do as a UGC creator, but a lot of UGC personal brand accounts suck and are boring and don't really get people that good results. So, what would be your advice for to people for building a UGC personal brand Instagram account?

SPEAKER_00 29:52

I don't think anyone can do it only because you have to have a way to provide value. Like, for example, so this is the page that you're talking about. I created this page two weeks ago. It already has nearly a thousand followers, a hundred thousand views in the last week. And I I just started this page, it only has 35 posts. One of my videos right here, 18,000 views on like a three-minute yap video about influencer marketing. So you ask me like what my hot take is, or like a video like this where I'm like breaking down uh a UGC video that went super viral that did a couple mil on TikTok shop. So I I'm really good at providing tactical values. So, you know, not not everyone can do that because A, they're not good at creating value and packaging it in a way that makes it easy for people to understand. But you have to have a personal brand UGC page. Like it's it's a non-negoti page, you have to do this because A, brands are finding me already from this page. Like I've already gotten over at least five inbounds from this page that I started a little over a week ago. So A, you gotta be searchable so that people brands can find you. But B, you have to continue to educate yourself. And that's why you can do it on your own time and you spend a year learning the stuff that branding can teach you in a month. You know, so it's like it's it's it's about saving time because time is extremely valuable. So I mean, I I can ask you the same question. Like, you've had a ton of videos that have performed extremely well. You grew your personal brand this year in the last five months. It's all about like, and I think you'd agree, like just the low effort content, but also providing value.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

It's also about, along with providing value, telling your story. Everybody has their own unique story. There's someone like you out there, no matter what you are, no matter what age, gender, race, financial situation. There is someone out there. And the more you can share about your story, the more people will connect with you and ultimately grow your audience. Um, and really, I think you're providing a good value to the world because it other people can can see you and relate and and know that they're not alone in like whatever their situation is. So that that's one thing I tell a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah, and volume over everything. You can't post one time per day. How how many times are you posting per day, Brandon?

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Uh, my personal brand page, I would say on average three. So sometimes, yeah, sometimes seven, sometimes one.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Um But what but what I like about your historic, but what I like about your page is like you'll just like make a video about a comment or you'll make a video about a question you got asked. Like, like, guys, you don't have to always just like come up with new ideas. Like just go through your DMs, go through your comments, and just screenshot it and respond to the comment. You're like, oh, three days, three times a day, not enough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yeah, you're like, I feel like you were posting.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Yeah. I thought you were posting more because you do come up on my feed every single time I open my phone.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So it's a good thing. But the thing is, I don't have a set amount. Anytime I come up with an idea, I take out my phone and start doing it. I do have I do have more of a strategy I'm going forward. I don't think I'm ready to like leak it at the moment. Um, but definitely when I was starting, it was just pull out your phone and and just talk. So, what's uh your favorite UGC deal you've done so far?

SPEAKER_00 33:04

I mean, there's some that I got paid a lot of money for that were my favorite. But also those are the best, yeah. I want the brand to get a good return on my videos. You know, like I like, yeah, it's cool. I've had retainer UGC deals for $2,500 a month, four-month contracts, right? That I'm currently working on right now. That I've got I've gotten paid the first two payments and I gotta deliver the you know, the other two months of content. I work with uh high-end like active sportswear brand on Tribe, and it's a very pri like, it's very exclusive. Um like I know the people that are running the tribe, and I luckily was part of that. And you know, I've made four videos, maybe five videos in less than 45 minutes, and one of my videos already made me like 1,500 bucks. Wow. Right. So like I love that. Like I love when it converts, and like I love working with brands that have have a high average order value. Like you want high AOV, right? You want like when someone clicks your ad, you want them to spend like $700.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

What's so cool? You said you've already made $1,500 for that one. You're gonna obviously start experiencing this as well. Is like these videos just keep paying. It's not just like, oh, you get this much for doing this many videos per month. They don't stop. I'm like, am I just gonna have this passive income for years now? Or like, what's what's gonna happen? So, where do you see the UGC space going and evolving over the next three or five years?

SPEAKER_00 34:30

The market cap is gonna continue to grow. What does that mean? I just feel like the amount of money that's gonna be spent on UGC is gonna continue to increase parabolically. Let's say there's just, for example, like let's say there's uh $20 billion that gets spent on paid ads a year through Meta, I think more and more of that $20 billion is gonna be allocated towards UGC influencers as opposed to like actual celebrities and influencers, right? We know that's true. So for UGC specifically, I think the market cap of money spent on UGC influencers is gonna continue to rise. But because there's such a low barrier to entry, I do think that we are going to be capped out at a certain point. You know, there are UGC creators that are making $60, $70,000, $80,000 a month for sure, but it's because they're on good deals and that had that are high ticket, and these brands are gonna be loyal to these creators. So I feel like there are creators that are in really good positions right now to make a lot of money. But competition is going to increase. I don't know if this is good news or bad news. The good news is the market cap is gonna go up. The bad news is there's gonna be more creators because there's a little bear to entry. And I feel like because there's gonna be more creators, brands are gonna spread out the money to multiple creators. Um, the only thing that I hope doesn't change is 10% GMV because I do see a world that GMV does go down, but you know, it comes to a point where creators, if we're only making X amount of dollars per video, we're not gonna make that video. Exactly. So, you know, UDC creators, we do got to stand tall and stand in unison together. We do. We gotta hold hands and we gotta walk this path together and we gotta keep stand our ground at 10% GMV. That needs to be the bare minimum. I mean, look, if I see a brand on Tribe that's offering 5% of GMV, no. No, I don't care what the average order value is of that. I don't care how high ticket is, I'm not doing 5% GMV, and I don't think anyone should either.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

Yeah, I think it's all a good thing. I would rather the total space grow and more money come in and more money flow to the top half of people because I'm gonna make myself be that top half. So you're you're you're totally right. Like, I mean, right now it is genuinely so freaking brain dead easy to come in and make five to 10k a month with UGC with having no skills. I see it all the time. People with no skills coming in, you can make 5k a month two months after starting. I've really never seen anything where you can make money so quick, but the people who start getting in now, they're gonna be getting um the connections and the skills necessary when these brands start spending more and two start requiring more skill from creators. But like there, there's two ways to look at it. So I only started six months ago, right? Doing organic UGC where you know you're just paid off views. When I was starting, there was no such thing as a view minimum. Now, on a lot of campaigns, you have to get at least a thousand a thousand views to get paid. And some people consider that a bad thing. But but here's the reality: there's now also deals. There are deals out there right now paying $53 per post base and letting people post five times a day. So if you do the math on that, you can make $7,500 base pay just from one company. But does it does that have a view minimum? It does. So you have to get at least a thousand views. But if you're not getting a thousand views on a video, you're not providing any value to these companies. So that's what I always say. You gotta learn the skills. The days of being able to come in and not perform for these companies are gonna end. I think we still have a long runway because it's it's so early. But I I think it's ultimately a good thing because the cream will rise and there'll be more money in the space. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

It is a good thing. It is a good thing. We we because we want to provide a lot of value to brands. We're not here just to like make a lot of money. No, we're here to make sure that other brands make money too. When we all make money, we're all thriving. So it's not here to like, oh, I got this brand to pay me. No, it's not about like I got this brand to pay me. No, it's about, hey, did the brand make money off your ad? If they did, then that's what we want. If they did not, we don't want that.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Exactly. Because if you help others make money, you will make money. Facts. So, what would you say to people who are curious about getting into UGC, they're not quite sure yet, or they're kind of one foot in, one foot out, only making a couple of videos a day.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Yeah, I mean, you you could just make like a video a day and just like see where it goes. You know, it's not like you gotta be all in and quit your job. This isn't like a huge decision to make. It's hey, do you like making content? Are you interested in UGC? Okay, go make a random video promoting this flower pot. Post it on your page and do it every single day for a year and you'll eventually make $10,000 a month. So, you know, if you're thinking about doing it, do it. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

There is so many resources out there to help you. There are so many companies looking for creators. So gain the skills, gain the connections, and your life will change much quicker than you think. So, Zach, this has been super fun. Zach provides insane amounts of value. I get tons of tips from his pages. So, Zach, where can the people find you? Yeah, you can follow me at personal brand tips on Instagram. I'll put that down below as well. Um, again, suit super entertaining, super valuable. I would I would highly recommend connecting with Zach. Thanks, guys, and thank you, Brandon. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the UGC Industry Podcast. We'll see you next time.