The Socialize Strategy - Creator Life with Austen Tosone
Welcome to the socialize strategy, the Friday edition of the socialize podcast, which today is a workshop. And I'm so excited because we have a special guest today. So let me, first of all, do an intro for her, which has Austyn, do we say to Sonne?
Austen:Yeah. That's right.
Helen:Amazing. I've been saying it like that and hoping it was right. Austen Tosone, fashion and beauty content creator and influencer educator is with us today. Formerly, Austin Austen worked as a magazine editor writing fashion, beauty, art, lifestyle stories, and then she was a beauty content creator for a while at a tech startup. She took all of her skills and put together a personal brand that has become a full time dream job.
Helen:I hope for you. So Austen, I read your timeline on your website, which I will link here in the show notes. But since everyone's listening, I found it so interesting. For starters, can you just take us through the bullet points on your your life timeline of how you got here?
Austen:Oh, sure. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. And I'm a fan of Socialize podcast, obviously.
Austen:So hi, everyone. I'm Austen. I am originally from New Jersey. I moved to New York when I was 18 for college, and I really wanted to be a magazine editor. My mom was actually a magazine editor, so the house was filled with magazines as I'm sure you can guess.
Austen:And I really just wanted to, like, write and be around fashion and just be in the communications hub, which of course was New York. So I interned at a bunch of different publications when I was in college, and I got hired as an assistant editor at Nylon Magazine when I graduated. Nylon is, of course, just the epitome of cool girl magazines. I could not believe they even had me interview there. I didn't know if I was cool enough, but I was just so excited to be there.
Austen:And I worked there for about a year and a half before nylon print folded, so I lost my job. And then I went to Interview Magazine. I was only out of work for about a month. So I went to Interview, and then the same thing happened 8 months later. Interview print folded too.
Austen:So the print industry was really letting me down even though that's what I grew up loving. So the kind of pivot and move towards digital, all things digital was was easy to kind of lean into. So that became a journey just of freelance writing for different publications. So I've written for Refinery 29, Teen Vogue, Fashionista, Birdie, The ZOE Report and many more. So, hopefully, you have maybe seen my byline at some point.
Austen:And then a friend from college DM me on Twitter and was like, I don't know if you're looking for a job or not, but this guy I know is starting a new company, and they need a beauty content director or this new app. So I went and worked there for about a year and a half as well. It was a huge learning experience for me, learning more of the marketing side of things and getting involved in the creation of an app and getting creators interested and excited about being on an app and also listening to their frustrations with the app. So I worked there, like I said, for about a year and a half, And my role had changed a lot during 2020 2021 because I was working there during the pandemic. So I was basically just, you know, kind of navigating the changes of my role and weighing the pros and cons of if this still felt like the right fit for me.
Austen:And I had been blogging and creating content all on the side of that career journey, and I kind of decided to take the leap and just see what would happen. And here we are 3 years later since quitting my job to do content full time.
Helen:That is amazing, actually. Because I was gonna ask you when you started creating for yourself, for your personal brand, And you'd been doing it all along just on the side pretty much the whole time Yeah. While you were working?
Austen:Yeah. And I actually started the blog because some of the internships I was applying to at magazines wanted writing samples, but I'd never been published anywhere. So I thought, hey. Maybe I could send them a link to a blog post. I was like, is that even allowed?
Austen:Does that count if you've self published? And apparently, it did. So That's amazing. When I did start the blog, it was very, you know, focused on tying into, like, creating a whole online portfolio to hopefully stand out when I went to these interviews. And little did I know that today, 12 years later, I'd still be blogging.
Helen:It's so unbelievable because you are really ahead of your time. Because one might say, now to get into content creating, it's it's more challenging because there's more people in it. So you were kind of ahead of it. Did you have an moment where you knew this is it, or did it just happen gradually?
Austen:Yeah. I think in terms of, like, knowing when it made sense to kind of leave my job and try things out on my own. In the stint that I had been freelancing between Interview Magazine and then working at the start up, I had kind of gotten a taste of the freelance life, and I knew what I didn't like about it. And what I didn't like about it was not knowing when where my next paycheck was was coming from, having no consistency, and chasing low paying assignments. And that was what I did not like from my first go around.
Austen:So I knew in my head if I ever were to leave again and go out on my own that I would really need to make sure I had more consistent income and stable income as a baseline and that I could secure higher paying brand partnerships. So before I kind of put in my 2 weeks and made that decision, I went back and looked, and I said, how much money did I even make, you know, from this being my side hustle? And I was able to see in the 2 years that I was working full time that each of those years, I made 5 figures in income from my blog as my side hustle.
Helen:I see.
Austen:So I thought, okay. At least I have that. And I had been doing it for about 8 to 9 years at that point, so I said, well, at least I still know I like doing it as well. And that's really what kind of gave me the confidence. I said I have proof of income, and I have proof of concept, right, that I like this and that people are looking for this type of work.
Austen:Right. So having those two things was really instrumental because I'm despite, you know, going out and kind of going on my own, I'm really not a big risk taker otherwise. So this made me feel a lot more self assured in making that decision.
Helen:Amazing. Alright. And I'm gonna say that consistently in every guest that we've had on our expert series here, it's always been driven by the person's passion. And I love that as a theme, which now I'm gonna make sure I'm conscious of doing that moving forward because the 2 guests we've had prior are really passionate about what they do. And it was food about skinny tastes and my stylist, colleague, Alicia, and they both are so passionate about what they do.
Helen:So clearly, that is a very important and crucial piece of the puzzle to being successful at something like this. Because you almost wanna love doing it without making any money for it to be right? Because in the beginning, you just did it for the love of doing it. Right?
Austen:Oh, yeah. I did not get any kind of paid brand partnership until about 4 years in, I would say. And that was also because that wasn't as common at the time. There was a lot of, like, gifting or, like, invite you to this experience or this, like, New York City pop up, which going to college in the city put me at a huge advantage because I was only, like, a subway swipe away for most of that stuff. But, yeah, it didn't it wasn't until 2016 that I got my first paid partnership where ASOS was looking for college students to promote, like, their college discount.
Austen:So they paid me and they sent me clothes, and I practically, like, fainted when I got that email.
Helen:That's amazing.
Austen:So I was like, what?
Helen:That is amazing. So are you were you initially on all platforms at once? So I'm gonna ask you 2 very specific questions. For everybody listening, I know they're gonna wanna know about your revenue streams to really define what those are. But before I get into that, I wanna know, were you, did you add on this and then add on that?
Helen:Or you were all systems go on all the platforms. So tell us what your reach is and and where you are and how that played out.
Austen:Yeah. So I guess, technically, first, I was on Facebook and Twitter because those were kind of the earliest ones. So I had a private, you know, Facebook account and then a Twitter account that I really overused. Like, that was at the time when someone said, oh, you could just tweet any thought you have at any time of day. And I took that I took that and ran with it.
Austen:So don't go scroll back on my Twitter. It will be embarrassing. But in 2012 was when I launched my blog, and I finally got the iPhone 4. That was my high school graduation present. So I signed up for Instagram.
Austen:Everyone said, you're gonna love this app. It's called Instagram. You upload photos to it, and you can filter them right in the app. And I was like, sounds good. So the blog and Instagram were kind of, I think, the 2 key components.
Austen:And even today, they're still kind of like the anchors of what I do because the blog has allowed me to create consistent income and create long form content, which is actually so similar to what I was doing as an editor, which I love. And then Instagram has really been my community hub. So I started those 2 in 2012. I started a YouTube channel in 2017, and then I joined TikTok in 2019.
Helen:So when was your first do you remember when your first monetization was? When that moment of I can make money at this? When was that first? Which platform was it on? Where did you do you remember where you made your first dollar?
Helen:Is that a crazy question? You might not.
Austen:Yeah. Well, I do think it was the ASOS collaboration, but I think after that was when I kind of started to notice just more opportunities. Like, I started signing up for influencer networks and other Facebook groups of bloggers. I guess bloggers was, like, a little bit more the term that was used back then, but, really, it was influencers. It was bloggers who also were working with brands on Instagram or YouTube.
Austen:And it was just so fascinating to, like, start to learn how all of that worked. And I would sign up for a lot of these kind of, influencer platforms like AspireIQ, IQ, the influencer collective collectively. Obviously, these these names all still exist today, and I just personally you know, I'm not using them as much. But at the beginning, it was not as competitive to apply to campaigns with brands and then get approved and get paid. But I feel like you still really had to, you know, fill out the application.
Austen:Like, why do you wanna work with this brand? What do you wanna do? You still had to, you know, put your best foot forward. You kind of had to have a pitch in mind and have a reason for what you wanted to do. So that was how I started getting kind of those first few.
Austen:Like, Asos was a big one that I was connected to, I believe, through the influencer collective because at the time, they were primarily working with, like, college students. And then I did one with CBS Love Island when it came to the US. I did one with CVS beauty, and a couple more that really started to show me, hey. Not only do these brands need content like this, but they're willing to pay for it.
Helen:So those platforms I mean, I guess, historically, they they go low. I mean, they're gonna try and get you for low money. Right? Is that correct? Am I correct in saying that?
Helen:Because I don't really dive into those platforms as much. I'm aware of some that I've been offered. You know, welcome come into this platform. And and then you go and click on something that's, like, $50 to make a video, and I'm thinking, my god. My time is well better spent better spent doing my day job.
Helen:So that's where the balance comes in because you have to kind of do those to get your name out there. Is that why you were using those platforms initially? Because just to get started and get some little extra money?
Austen:I think it was one way just to kind of get easily connected and also at least get a sense of if not exactly which brands we're hiring, like, maybe what type of brands we're hiring. So if, you know, Kohl's was on there looking for people, you could assume, oh, if Kohl's needs people, maybe like Amazon needs people, Walmart needs people. Kind of just using it as a touchpoint to understand what brands are on there and what specifically are they looking for. And I think the it can totally vary on the pay rate, and I agree completely. There are plenty that'll say, like, hey.
Austen:$50 for a video, and it's just so hard to even stomach that in 2024. But I think that the biggest problem is really just they're rigid in their terms, so it's hard to negotiate on those platforms. So, you know, sometimes I still see some on there that are like, oh, like, it's $1,000 for this. And at first, you're like $1,000? Like, now we're talking, and then you read the terms.
Austen:They have usage of your content forever. You can't work with their competitors for this much time. And it's like, okay.
Helen:Very limiting.
Austen:Now that $1,000 is not the right price point. So I think it really helped me get my foot in the door and helped me get, like, somewhat substantial pay for the first batch of those collaborations that I was doing. But I haven't really noticed a ton of them lately that have been offering fair campaigns, and I also have not seen any recently that I've been excited to apply to. So
Helen:So do you still use them for reference? I mean, it looks like you're still looking at them. Right? You're still using those platforms for reference.
Austen:I think the biggest one is Aspire just because you can apply to things very easily, and you could always you can actually message the brands and negotiate on there now. I don't know if that was a feature back when it kind of first started. But most of my brand partnerships at this point, I would say, come from inbound offers. I would probably say, like, 80% of them do, and then maybe 10% of the time I'm looking at, you know, these third party platforms forms if there is kind of a standout fit or I'm just pitching them myself. Because that way, at least, I can make a direct connection with a brand, and you're not one step removed like you would be on one of those platforms.
Helen:Do you find that a lot of brands have agencies that you're dealing with? Or do, like, percentage wise, would you say it's 5050 that you sometimes get have better success reaching the brand directly versus an agency? Because I noticed a lot of them agencies reaching out to me versus the brands themselves.
Austen:I've kind of noticed it 5050 as well. And even I've worked with the same brand in the last year once they reached out to me directly and once an agency reached out on their behalf. I guess it was for 2 slightly different types of partnerships. 1 was a strict UGC campaign where I made, like, a one minute YouTube, basically, like a UGC video ad for them. And then the other one was a YouTube video on my own platform.
Austen:So it was kind of interesting to see both sides of it to hear someone be like, hey. I represent this brand. And I'm like, yeah. No. I I worked with you guys a few months ago, but now I see you're with an agency.
Austen:So I think brands kind of change their minds also depending on what season of life they're in or maybe they are doing all organic or not organic, but maybe they're doing all, like, YouTube partnerships in house, but they're gonna outsource paid media or, you know, UGC content. So I find that working with the brand directly agency, they're gonna be taking some kind of fee for Yeah. You know, facilitating they're gonna be taking some kind of fee or Yeah. Of course. Facilitating the work between you and
Helen:your company. You hope that you you hope that for their fee, they're negotiating on your behalf a little higher so that they make more and you make more too. You know what I mean? Everybody wins. Fingers crossed on that one.
Austen:Yeah, exactly.
Helen:But I I will say I noticed with brands that I work with for commercial work, I sometimes they work on projects with their agency, and then other times, they're contacting influencers directly. So I see it from the client side as well. So, you know, I know you're seeing it really from from the influencer side, and I'm seeing it on both sides of the coin there. So it is interesting to see. And they do change, like, flavor of the week.
Helen:If they're not happy with their agency, the next thing you know, they're on to another agency. So it's hard to keep up. So do you let's talk about what your revenue streams are, if you don't mind saying, okay. Here's where the bulk of my money comes from or whatever so that you can break that down for us. And then I wanna know how much forward effort you have to do on a weekly basis now versus because now you're saying a lot of you it's it's you being found, so it's a lot easier.
Helen:But dial back to the beginning when you're first trying to do this, you probably had to do a lot more reaching out. Mhmm.
Austen:Yeah. And I mean, I would say that brand deals was probably, like, my first income stream, and I would assume that for most content creators, like, you know, one day you're just creating along and then a brand pops into your inbox, and they're like, hey. We loved your video, and we would love to pay you to make something for us. Like, oh, okay. Tell me more, Brand.
Austen:And I feel like that's how a lot of people start out. And then once you get that first one, it's a little bit like, wow. I'm really unlocking the potential here, and I can see that if a brand wants this for me, that other brands will probably want something similar. So I think that brand deals and affiliates were probably the first two monetization methods that I unlocked. And I feel like especially because I create a lot of fashion and beauty content that LTK was a big talk of the town, so to speak, in the, like, Facebook blogger groups that I was in.
Austen:So I was never really, like, super literate with LTK. I would kind of share links here and there. Didn't notice much from it, but the brand partnerships felt like the most lucrative option. So I kind of continued to build relationships with brands and pursue that. But I think another thing that I learned, like I said before, from that that period of time when I was in between magazines on the tech start up was that I didn't wanna just be reliant on that service based work.
Austen:I didn't wanna just be trading dollars for hours in order to make a living. I really wanted to have something passive and something consistent to support me if a brand deal didn't work out because they couldn't meet my rates or, you know, that maybe it was a quiet season or, I don't know, we were going through a global pandemic and all marketing budgets were frozen. So, that's where I kind of noticed that with my blog and with my YouTube channel, I had the potential for ad revenue where
Helen:I
Austen:could earn ad revenue on content that I already created. So then I was always kind of, yeah, bringing in some kind of base line because and I listened to your interview with, Gina Skinny Taste as well. And I know that blog is huge for her and that that ad revenue is something that is extremely helpful in order to get consistent revenue from creating your content.
Helen:So the blog and the YouTube videos for someone who is trying to get something that's the passive income coming in where it's not so time heavy. Because once you do something and you put it there I have a video from 2020 that is still viral on YouTube. I'm telling you. It was a towel rolling. It was when I was not even doing tutorials.
Helen:I was teaching how to roll towels and put them on tutorial, though. It's the crate. It is. You're right. It really was, but it was something totally different.
Helen:But that video still gets comments, views. It's got so many views, and I'm still making money from that video 4 years later. I mean, it's a little bit of money, but it's not. But it's listen. It's money that I don't have to do anything for it to come, which that is super smart.
Helen:So the revenue streams are blog income with through AdSense. Do you place ads on your blog, like, individual sponsorships, or it's just through AdSense?
Austen:So for blogs, it's kind of interesting because I know for YouTube, you only have one option. Like, you can apply for the YouTube partner program, which pays creators out through Google AdSense since Mhmm. Google owns YouTube. And then for your blog, you have a lot more options. So you can sign up for Google AdSense, but for blogs, it's notoriously low paying, low cost per 1,000 views.
Austen:So once you kind of build your blog traffic, there are other ad networks that once you hit a certain threshold will let you apply to those, and I found those to be a lot more, like, lucrative and also consistent. So I'm part of one called She Media Collective. I think the minimum to apply to them is 20,000 monthly page views. Mediavine is one that bloggers love, and that's kind of like a big goal for a lot of bloggers to get on Mediavine, which I believe is 50,000 monthly page views. And then there's Adthrive.
Austen:I think they recently rebranded and are called Raptive now, which is a 100,000 monthly page views. So as you kind of build your blog, you could also kind of weigh your options and say, am I still happy with my current ad network? Could I get better rates with another ad network? But most of them have you sign a year long contract. So that's something to keep in mind too.
Austen:So I really would encourage yeah. I would encourage any bloggers to wait until they qualify for one of these kind of better paying ad networks, versus just installing Google AdSense right away. I mean, if your goal is to make just a couple of cents or, like, you just wanna make some money, you could always start there. But I find the ad experience to be, like, more elevated on some of these other networks.
Helen:That is that's that's very good information because I was wondering about doing that with my own blog. I'm like, do I do I wanna connect to AdSense? So maybe it's not worth it at this point if it's not something that I need the few cents. You know, I have to, like, weigh that out. So interesting.
Helen:Okay. So I'm gonna so now we have a blog. We have YouTube. You have brand sponsorships. Let's talk.
Helen:And then you also have a newsletter. You also have a Patreon. And do those play in? Are there other tell me if I'm missing any other revenue streams.
Austen:Yeah. So my Patreon is currently kind of basically just like a resource vault. So you can pay a flat rate to get access to, like, an exclusive tutorial and resource each month. It's one of my smaller income streams, but it's kind of just been a consistent, like, if it's not broke, don't fix it type thing. So I'm glad to, you know, at least have the experience of that to tell other creators more about how a membership model can work.
Austen:But one of my other favorite income streams that we haven't touched on yet is digital products. So namely digital downloads and templates and also a digital course. And these are probably 2 of my favorites.
Helen:Okay. Are they 2 of your most lucrative versus everything? Like, why don't you give us a number system of, like, what you what your highest is? Like, this is where I make my most income to the lowest. Just out of curiosity, let's rate them.
Austen:Yeah. So for 2023, my top 3 income streams were brand deals, were still about 59% of my total income. Underneath that, I believe, was education, which I think was somewhere around, like, 16 or 17% of my total income. And that's the course. When you say education Yes.
Austen:That's my digital course.
Helen:Private sessions?
Austen:Course and any other paid workshops. So sometimes companies will hire me to, like, post workshops. So I've done them for Macy's. I've actually done them for, AdThrive has a creator cohort program called remarkable voices. So I actually just did one for them this week.
Austen:That was great. So if it's a more like presentation that I have to put together and a one off workshop, I count education as those paid workshops and then also money from my digital course sales, which as of right now, I have just launched, once a year. Okay. So I think that's probably, like, maybe 10% or something, and then the other income streams are, you know, lower and on that. But the fact that they're all there, I think there's 7 or 8 at this point.
Austen:That's what helps me do this full time. Because to answer something I believe you asked me earlier that I we can circle back to is that I have fewer than a 100,000 followers across all platforms. And I wouldn't be able to be full time if I did not have these multiple income streams. Because if a creator of my size was just making money from brand deals, I personally don't feel like it would be enough to sustain my lifestyle.
Helen:Alright. You're very smart. I mean, I have not spoken to anyone who has this so strategically thought out, at least not so far. But I'm amazed by because you how do you manage the week? Like, how do you know where to put your time?
Helen:Are you good at time management? Do you use a resource, a tool for that? How do you keep yourself organized and moving and getting it all done?
Austen:Oh, gosh. Well, I was just that the short answer is that I'm a Virgo and I'm an only child. So creating like a system is my favorite thing to do. Okay. But I've real I really still have to have to teach myself a lot over the years because, you know, especially when it's one thing to be a productive person, when you're an employee and you're working for someone, it's another one to try to be productive.
Austen:And then you are the one who has to track your own productivity. It can get very it can get very overwhelming very quickly. So I have Notion, which is kind of my creator business back end, and that's where I keep track of pretty much everything. So there's, like, a page for YouTube. There's a page for brand contacts.
Austen:I'm, like, making sure that I keep that updated and that I'm reaching out to them from time to time so that they don't forget about me. That's where I keep my, like, daily to do lists and quarterly goals and things like that. Amazing. So, yeah, if I didn't have Notion, I it's literally like my second brain. I'm so grateful to have found, like, a system that works for me now and have everything in one place.
Austen:But I think the other good thing to mention is that of those 8 income streams, 4 of them are passive or passive to some degree. So, like, we said the ad revenue from blog and YouTube. The reason I call that passive is because I just keep publishing content that I would be publishing anyway, and then I make money from it. So I don't have to add something new
Helen:There's not a special
Austen:to my workload each week. And then something like the Patreon is one of my smaller income streams, but the amount of time I spend on it each month is also pretty much equivalent to the amount of money that I make. So it's a couple of hours a month, honestly, and that's an easy thing for me to add
Helen:in. Okay.
Austen:And then digital products is a great one because for digital products, I primarily just try to, like, create thoughtful YouTube videos around the problem that I think my digital product solves. So one example of this is, I have a YouTube video called how to invoice brands. And I walk you through, you know, how that process works and exactly what to include in an invoice. Like, I'm still giving you what you need to know if you wanna go make your own invoice and send it to a brand. But at the end of the video, I do say, by the way, like, I do have an invoice template that I sell that you can edit in Canvas.
Austen:So if that's something you're interested in, like, there's a link, and it's a low cost digital product.
Helen:So for example, how much would that cost? I mean, $20. So that's what you I'm just curious how you price them. Okay. So because doing that, you're giving them all the information.
Helen:They could make it themselves. But for the convenience of you handing it over, it's just a mere $10.
Austen:Mhmm. That is something that everybody has
Helen:to realize. Because you sometimes a lot of people think, I can't give away all the information for free. And the interesting thing here is, yes, you can. Because people are too lazy to take that final step to do it themselves, then they're willing to pay for that final step. That's that's what you're sharing here.
Helen:Just so Absolutely. Amazing. Right.
Austen:And even in your content like, if you gave someone half of a tutorial on capcut, they would be like, where's the end? Like, you still wanna give someone the full tutorial
Helen:Of course.
Austen:Even if you're not getting anything out of it because you don't wanna annoy people or scare people away from you.
Helen:Yeah. It's also a little slimy to do that because then it's like you're holding them. You're withholding your gatekeeping, and that's not good karma. So and a lot of this comes from you you see what other people do. There's people out there that are, you know, people are vying for their them to speak at speak at events because of their expertise, because they're giving it all away free on social media, but still they're getting paid to do other things with it.
Helen:So there is some value in giving away this stuff for free and really allowing your audience to trust that you're the expert and become and you become the expert in that in that area that you're in, which I love because you've clearly done that. And you've done that with you know, what I love is and this is why I'm so happy that you wanted to be here because I think a lot of people think you have to have a 1000000 followers to make money. And look at the difference between me and you. I'm still working my day job because I love it. And I'm not using my 1,000,000 followers at this point to monetize enough to to have a full time career out of it.
Helen:I'm really and I I would love your advice on how you think I should do that.
Austen:Well, I think there's something of course. And I think there's something to be said for that, though. Because if you think about when you started TikTok and when I started my blog, it took me 4 years from 2012 to 2016 to even really be like, yeah, I could be making money from this. Like, maybe I should apply to this thing. And we live in a world now where there are a lot of influencer experts on TikTok who will say, are you not doing affiliates?
Austen:Like, here's 3 ways to boom, boom, boom. And I appreciate people who are now so transparent and so willing to share information, but I think it's really important to review strategies that people share critically and just say, hey. Like, is this what's going to work best for me? And that's something that in my digital course, I talk about, like, how to choose the right passive income streams to supplement your business. And I'm like, if you're someone who gets overwhelmed and exhausted with keeping up consistent quality content, don't do a membership because you're gonna hate it.
Austen:You're gonna Right. You're gonna go in every month and be like, what do I do this month? They want the same quality because they pay the same price every month, so I have to deliver the same quality every month. Whereas if you have an idea, like, for a repeated webinar series and you book all 12 guests at the beginning of the year and that's your paid membership and you're planning and you're productive like that, then that's gonna be easy for you and people are gonna love it because they're gonna know what to expect, and they're gonna feel good about the money that you spend each month. If you're someone who wants to create something once and get paid for it over and over again, ad revenue and digital products are probably a good move.
Austen:I mean, even for you personally, Helen, like, you, I'm sure any digital product that you create related to getting started with TikTok or how to find trends or the best unknown things to know about CapCut, I see your audience going crazy for it, and I'm sure they'll tell you right now in the comments if that's something that they want. And that's nice because it's easy to get started and it's low cost because in theory, all you really need is a Canva account or a Zoom account if you're gonna do the webinar membership thing. You know? There's so many different ways to go about it. And I think thinking about how you like to make money is really important because I know a lot of fashion beauty creators who, like, sing the praises of affiliates and particularly, like, certain, you know, stores that give higher commissions and stuff.
Austen:It's like, I'm making $10,000 a month in affiliate sales from this platform. But when you look at all the content they create and everything that goes into it, you might not wanna be creating that platform.
Helen:Right. And
Austen:maybe they're, you know, every day on their Instagram stories, they're showing people no fewer than 30 products to buy. And if you don't feel comfortable selling in that way, then that's not gonna come as naturally to you, and you're gonna start dread doing it.
Helen:I so agree with you. That is so key. You have to find what you love the most and what you find the easiest to execute. What is your most challenging thing of doing this, as full time? I mean, you you have it so together.
Helen:I must say, you and Julie are, like, both left brain, right brain because she's so creative and so organized, and you are clearly so creative and so organized. I'm gonna admit that I'm not as organized. I am way more spontaneous and in the moment, and let's just do this, but I'm not the planner. So what do you find? Because you obviously are organized and you're creative.
Helen:But what is challenging for you?
Austen:I think the challenge is really, like, finding things that aren't working after you've spent so much time to build them and see if they can work. And, I mean, even an example of that could be, like, say you started one of these income streams, like affiliates or something like that, and you put all this time and effort into, I really wanna create these cute Canva collages. I really wanna make sure I'm showing up and sharing every day, and you do all this work and you're making, like, $5 a month from it. And, like, even if you want to be someone who is ultimately creating affiliate stuff, you have to ask yourself, is this still a good use of my time? And am I is the time I'm putting into this worth the money that I make from it?
Austen:And that's a really hard question when you're the only person to answer it, especially when you're like, but I did all that work to get it set up, and I'm so proud of, like, the cute collages I made and stuff like that. I mean, I affiliates for me has always been a small part of my business, and that's also because I have a smaller audience. Mhmm. I know that if I were to scale affiliates, it would be a lot easier with a bigger audience. So I'm not as focused on it, not because I don't think it's an incredible income stream.
Austen:But, yeah, like, if I link right now, you know, my new favorite concealer, I'm like, hey, guys. My new favorite concealer, it's $28 at Sephora. I might get, like, a dollar for every one of those that I sell. But even thinking about, you know, some of the softwares that I use like Canva, when I link Canva, like, a 30 day free trial of Canva Pro, my payout amount for when someone does do a Canva subscription is much higher. So even realizing We're working
Helen:to do that.
Austen:Yeah. Yeah. For my affiliate strategy, maybe it's not gonna be as much beauty I mean, I'm still gonna share beauty products because I love talking about them. But in terms of where I put my energy, like, maybe I'm gonna make a YouTube video where I show people how to do something in Canva, and I link the free trial, which is actually if you look at my YouTube channel, I did one of those very recently. But, yeah, I think that that's that's super important to think about.
Helen:Do you, think that you have an advantage to having I will say I won't say it. It's a smaller audience because it's still a big audience, I must say. But do you think that there's a way because of you, the size of your audience, you're still able to be more personal with them, and so there becomes more there is more trust. How do you feel about having the size audience you have? And would you want a large audience?
Helen:How how would you feel about that?
Austen:I would love to have a bigger audience, but I think the key that I've noticed over the years is making sure that it's the right people who are following you. And I see influencers, you know, who get very stressed out about people unfollowing them. Mhmm. And I forget who said this. It was so many years ago, but someone a long time ago put it in the framework of you're gonna attract certain people and you're gonna repel other people.
Austen:And when you repel people, it's not that you did something wrong or that you have less value, but it's just for whatever reason, it's not the right fit for them right now.
Helen:Mhmm.
Austen:And, I mean, I've been posting on Instagram and TikTok, a lot of Met Gala content, you know, talking about what celebrities are gonna be wearing and things like that. And I've actually gotten kind of a follower tick, you know, an uptick since I've been since I've been creating that content, which is great, but the Met Gala is May 6th. So then what happens after May 6th? Right. Is everyone still gonna stick around?
Austen:Maybe not. And that's okay if some people were just following for that one moment of red carpet coverage. If I still provided value, that's good to know. But I don't ever want to discount everyone who does follow me and everyone who's been there with me. I mean, some of them could have been there for the last 12 years because that's how long I've had Instagram.
Austen:So I appreciate every single audience member. And in an ideal world, I would love to grow, but not at the expense of not having the right people follow me, if that makes sense.
Helen:No. That makes perfect sense because that's how I feel about my newsletter. I think it's more valuable for me not to have this massive sudden influx of subscribers if they're not people that are gonna read it and be interested. So I'd rather have the people that I know every week, they're waiting for it. And I love that.
Helen:So I and I have that right now. So I think that's really important that well, this one thing that Julie and I have focused on is making sure that we're speaking to and delivering on the things that everyone wants from a newsletter. So it's the same kind of mindset I have. In terms of my social media, I'm a little different because I know this audience on TikTok wants this, and I wanna do this because I still wanna have fun. So I sprinkle in my fun things.
Helen:And it's finding that balance always whenever you're on these socials. But when you're trying to monetize, I think strategy is so much more key. So do you now, for example, set goals for what you wanna do this year? Do you have you mentioned that you have, like, quarterly review of yourself. And what does that look like?
Helen:How do you set those goals, and what do you have planned?
Austen:Yeah. Definitely. So I do like to set goals at the top of the year. For me, I've noticed that breaking them up quarterly has been hugely helpful, and that's kind of something that I never would have even thought to do in the first iteration of me being a freelancer because it just makes it it gives me more time that, like, if something happens in my life, like, oh, like, you know, unexpected family emergency where I have to take a week off this month. If my goal was just for the month and by the end of, you know, by, like, March 31st, I didn't get that thing done.
Austen:There's sometimes life happens and you need to leave a little wiggle room for things. So I do like the quarter system because I will try to pick 3 main priorities, and sometimes it does end up like month 1 is gonna be this priority, month 2 is gonna be this priority. But sometimes they're longer term projects that will span that quarter, and I like being able to switch from, okay. I've been working on this section of my business for a little while, but my other goal for the quarter is this other thing. So I'd like to, like, move my brain over here.
Austen:So Right. For example, in the Q1 of 2024, I was relaunching my digital course. So in January, I was updating all of the content. In February, I was hosting webinars and sending my marketing emails. And then in March, I actually started delivering the content to the new students.
Austen:And to have that split up over 3 months was good because if I rush to create the course in 1 month and I'm gonna create it all in week 1, and then I'm gonna do the webinars in week 2, like, it would be so clearly brushed. And I don't wanna sell people a course that I rush through creating. I wanna make sure that I give myself the time that I need to create it. So I think that's been super helpful. And I also set goals that sometimes change or move around.
Austen:Like, I had a goal for a new project I thought I wanted to launch later this year, and I had a really great, like, moment of creativity. And I had a, like, a a light bulb moment where I said, oh my gosh. Like, what if I called it this? And what if I did it this way? And so that moved.
Austen:I mean, that was supposed
Helen:to be
Austen:in the Q3 because q three is my slowest quarter of the year typically. But it just got moved up because I was so excited about it. And so I try to still give myself that flexibility because when you just put so much your straight on your creative career, it can be really hard. Even though you do need structure, you're still creative at the end of the day. So Yes.
Austen:I think having that flexibility, which is not always easy for me. Like, I do love structure and having a plan, but to give myself permission to move something around because, like I said, things happen.
Helen:It is so true. Oh my god. And And you definitely wanna be able to be spontaneous because so much of the spontaneous things sometimes are the ones that give you more, I don't know, views in some cases or attraction. And you have to be when you're in that moment, you're inspired. Sometimes the outcome is so much better because you're you know you're in the zone.
Helen:You know?
Austen:Well and that's what I love about your content too, though, is because, like, when there's a new trend, like, you hop on it and you'll show the process even if it doesn't, like, nail perfectly the first time, even, like, testing the horizontal video on TikTok. It was, like I know.
Helen:I'm like, hey.
Austen:Gotta do it. We're we're in progress here. We're testing. It doesn't have to be a 100% right away, but the fact that you're willing to be an early adapter and to, you know, put yourself out there and say, here's what I'm doing right now, and I'm sharing this for the benefit of other people. Like, even if that's not a sit down tutorial, it's still so helpful for people.
Helen:Oh, thank you. I love doing that because I think that part of what I wanna show people is that you can experiment. You don't have to know everything. And even somebody that's quote that's supposed to be the expert because I know people think I work at TikTok sometimes. But people that, you know, really, I get that question a lot.
Helen:But I am willing to put myself as the tester. I'm willing to be the guinea pig, and I don't mind because I don't mind to laugh at myself. And even when I'm doing those tutorials and sometimes I make a mistake, I leave the part mistake part in. Something and people won't need to see that it doesn't go perfect every single time. It doesn't go perfectly on the first try.
Helen:You know? I really am.
Austen:People want the they want the authenticity. You know? Like, there's there's been a lot of polished and perfect curated images over the years, and it's nice to just see someone be a human too.
Helen:Oh, God. It's so true. God knows I was human for a period of time there. We know. I'm I'm gonna pop in and take a couple of questions just so we don't miss anybody's questions.
Helen:But so Connie is asking that she would like to work with brands, but she feels that it's rough with the strict rules, and it's hard to stay on track politically politically correct. So do you ever struggle with that yourself, and how would you answer a question like that?
Austen:I think that when either you reach out to a new brand partner or you get an inbound request, really reading through, anything that they've sent you, like any brand guidelines, brand brief, and kind of looking for any red flags is really important to make sure that you're finding the right brand partners who are excited to work with you. And I also think that you're allowed to ask the brand as many questions as you want. You know? You're allowed to negotiate. You're allowed to push back.
Austen:You're allowed to say, why do I have to say this particular line in the script? Like, can I just with me?
Helen:Yeah. Exactly. It doesn't feel right for a person sometimes. You know?
Austen:Yeah. And I think that sticking to your gut and sticking to your brand is really important because any brand that's willing to work with you and find a middle ground where they can say, okay. Like, why don't we sit down and brainstorm some bullet points together so you don't feel like you have to word for word say this exact thing that maybe it doesn't feel right for you? I always love to give my friend Crystal as an example to even just from, like, a style perspective. So Krystal Bick, Krystal with a k on Instagram.
Austen:You guys have to look her up. She creates these beautiful cinematic reels. Like, every single one of them looks like an Audrey Hepburn movie. She lives in New York, and she her stuff is very high quality, very, like, beautiful. And if, like, Walmart went to her and they were like, hey.
Austen:We want you to do some talking to camera Instagram stories being like, hey, guys. Here are my favorite Walmart finds. It would be so weird to see her do something like that. And I think that's also an example of stylistically, like, how you create content, how you talk to her audience. And by the way, she works with a top brands, and she seamlessly integrates them into her content to the point where sometimes you don't even know that it's Yeah.
Austen:I mean, you'll see the paid partnership label because she's a good girl who follows the rules, but you will feel the same leaving watching one of her sponsored posts as you do with her organic posts. And I think that's the sign of a great creator Yes. Who can deliver something to a brand and who can stick to their
Helen:guns. And there's not many creators who do that well. I will say that just from, you know, on the viewer side. Because being in background being in advertising, and Julie has also a background in social media and and the way brand the way influencers should be doing their content is true to themselves because that's the whole reason that they were hired. But what's happening now is the restrictions that the brands are putting on you for how to make the videos and the things you have to put in them, it really almost ties people's hands a lot.
Helen:And I've know I've noticed a lot of creators making complainer videos about that. Have you seen those too where they're saying, you know, you might think this video doesn't feel like this person, but trust me, it's because they were given 20 rules that they had to follow.
Austen:Yeah. And I think that's a hard line to draw, and I think it's especially hard when a brand is offering you a lot of money. Yeah. But I think, like, again, looking through the contract and making sure that, you know, a lot of brands will include, like, morality clauses and things like that, but just, like, really read the fine print and make sure that your partnership with the brand is, like, just for this one video that, like, whatever else you post on your page is up to you. You know?
Austen:I think that there's still a lot that we can do to be more transparent about this and to help make this better for both brands and creators because for everyone. It would be it would be great to yeah. It would be because viewers are also smart too. They'll see right through, like, a forced or a forced feeling campaign.
Helen:Absolutely. Absolutely. Alright. Let's, take another question. Could you share how long did you waited before starting to sell digital products?
Helen:And do you think that you need to wait till you have a certain following, or do you think it's really, at your own when you're ready, you go. What do you think of that?
Austen:The great answer is I think it's both. I think you really have 2 options. So if you already have an existing audience and you know what their pain points are and you feel like you could create a digital product to solve those, then you already have your built in audience that you can be marketing to. I I think that if you don't have an audience though, there's a wonderful magical place of on the Internet called Etsy. And Etsy is a digital marketplace where everyone's already searching for things.
Austen:So as long as you kind of figure out what to title your products and have good SEO and look at other, you know, similar products to see how are people photographing this. What are the product images? How many reviews do these people have? How should I be getting reviews? Like, all of those things are possible on a platform like Etsy because the audience is there already.
Austen:They're just coming and searching for something particular. So if you are a productivity content creator, but you're new and you feel like you don't have a huge audience yet, you could start out by selling to do lists or weekly planners and things like that on Etsy. And if you do end up growing your audience on the side too, you could just direct them to your Etsy shop or make it known that, you know, you offer products like that. But don't be afraid to get started with no audience because, like I said, you can use Etsy's existing customer base, which is huge.
Helen:That's great. That is a great piece of advice. I would never have thought of that, honestly. I I don't even think of I always think of Etsy as just, where I might wanna buy cool earrings or something cool for my house, like, artistic. I never really thought about it for digital products.
Helen:I love that. Great piece of advice. Wow. Okay. Now what do you get gifted things a lot?
Helen:Do you find that you get gift boxes, and are you on PR lists like that?
Austen:Oh, yeah. Special I mean, I'm very fortunate, especially as a beauty content creator and especially with connections I was able to make as a magazine editor to receive PR from brands.
Helen:Okay. And do you what is the what do you think people should know that they should do if they are getting gifted? And I it happens to me occasionally where I get stuff and I'm thinking, are they expecting me to make a video about this? Because they didn't sign they're not paying me. And I I value my time, and I'm working, and I'm busy, so I can't always do it.
Helen:So what do you what's your advice on, the gifted campaign the gifted things?
Austen:Yeah. I would, again, be super clear with the brand. Make sure you're reading through the entirety of whatever email or DM they've sent you reaching out and offering to send you something and make sure you understand what the relationship is. Because if you get added to a brand's PR list and they send you products for editorial consideration, which to me means it's up to your own discretion if and how you would feature those products in your content, it's not a guarantee. If a brand is asking you if, hey.
Austen:Can we send you this moisturizer in exchange for a reel? That implies more of an obligation to be posting. So feel free to ask the brands and say, just to be clear here, is this, an exchange collaboration where I'm expected to create this reel, or are you just sending it to me so that I can test it out, try it, and share my honest thoughts if I choose to with my audience? I think those are the 2 biggest things to clarify. Am I being sent this just to see how I like it and maybe share it, or are you only going to send this to me if I post?
Austen:And it's always just better to ask and be up front because, of course, a brand is hoping that you're going to post when they send you something. But especially for a beauty brand, you know, the margins are really low. And before those products are on retail shelves, like, the brand can afford to send out products to content creators for way less money than if they were to, you know, individually pay everyone to post about it. And a lot of times, we love creating stuff about those products because we love them. So I think that saying yes to what you want to say yes to is really important.
Austen:And, you know, I turned down more PR than I accept these days. So I think that making sure that you only take what you think you would actually like and use.
Helen:Right. And this is a great question that really just came in from Dina, which is, do you disclose that it was a gift? Do you what is the what are you supposed to do? And this is such a good question because I have this happens to me often. So now I'm I'm happy to hear from an expert on this.
Austen:I think it's really helpful to cover your bases. The FTC is doubling down more than ever on, you know, are we promoted or how do we promote and say, hey. This thing was gifted to me, and, hey. How are we disclosing these things? When in doubt, I'll always try to if I show a product, say thank you, tag the brand for sending this to me, something that helps kind of specify the difference between me buying it, yeah, and me receiving it as a gift.
Austen:And you'll see also in some of my reels and TikToks, I will use an audio disclosure where I'll say, like, oh, Hard Candy just sent me their new lip glosses. So, like, let's test them out. And if I'm showing you a PR box with all the products in it, it's kind of easier to deduce that a brand sent it to me
Helen:Of course.
Austen:Versus if I shopped the Sephora sale and I'm just taking everything out of a cardboard box that was sent to me. There you go. But I think just being honest with your audience is is helpful because there's no reason to hide that you were gifted something. And the more you can help them understand how and why you're being sent products, that's better for our whole industry, honestly.
Helen:Okay. That's beautiful advice. It's so funny because I always said to Julie, if I got a big sponsorship, I would start by saying, this is an ad. And I took this ad because I really love this product. You know what I mean?
Helen:Like, I would be so excited to call it an ad and then say it's an ad. And the reason I decided to do it is because I'm such a fan of this brand. So when I get mother denim as my brand sponsor, believe you me, I'll be talking about it because they're my favorite jeans. But I wanna
Austen:tell you
Helen:love that. Yes. And I and I've we're in I'm in talks with them, so I'm really kind of hoping because mothership mother, come on now. Right?
Austen:I'm It's obvious. That's perfect. That's perfect.
Helen:I know. I really hope so. But I will tell you recently I had a tripod brand reach out to me, sent me the you know, put in writing. We're gonna send you this tripod. It comes and explained that it's a charging trip.
Helen:So you put your phone on it, and it supposedly charges your phone while you're shooting, which is, like, unbelievable. So I went, I looked at the product, and they were wanted it in exchange for an Instagram video. To me, that was fair. So I said, okay. The product came, and it was beautiful.
Helen:I loved how it looked, and it was, like, aesthetically beautiful and everything about it was cool. But the freaking charging thing did not barely charge my phone for a second. When I tell you, it was on the charger and I'm and the the battery was going down. So I said, shit. I agreed to make a video, but I'm not gonna lie and say this thing works.
Helen:So believe it or not, I wrote them and I said, I'm sorry to say I love everything about the product except the battery charger. It does not do what it says it's gonna do, so I'd like to know where to return it. Because I don't even wanna keep it because they sent it to me in in exchange for video, and I want no legality, you know, no problems of of a legal nature to say that I kept this product and unfortunately is not I'm not gonna get behind it. So one thing I will always stay true to myself, I'm not gonna try and sell something that I don't really like. And, hopefully, I hear back from them so I could send this product back.
Helen:Isn't that crazy?
Austen:Yeah. And I think you're also totally within your rights to ask for a testing period with either paid or gifted campaigns to say Good point. But I have to do that a lot for skin care. Because if a skin care brand reaches out to me and they're like, hey. Can you, post about our, like, toner?
Austen:And the post is gonna go up next week. I'm like, it usually takes, like, 2 or 3 weeks for me to understand if a skin care product works for me or not. So I'm not gonna be able to do it.
Helen:You can't make the video right away. Exactly. That was the other thing. They did say within 2 weeks, but I luckily came back from vacation, had it in time to try it out. Because I was so excited when I opened it.
Helen:I was ready to make the video, and then I thought, let me just see. You know? Let me let me play with it a little. And I'm really glad I took the time to do that because I don't wanna have to have people buying it and coming back at me saying, you told us this was a great product and it sucks. I don't want I don't eat that baggage.
Helen:That's not happening. That is not happening. Alright. So now I wanna ask you, when did you start following me? I don't even know.
Helen:How long have we been following each other? I mean, I know when we met, I was said, oh, I'm following you back. So we've we've been in touch. And was it for tutorials or when?
Austen:It was you know what? I feel like someone commented on someone's video. I don't know if you commented on mine or I commented on yours, but I remembered going to your page and following you because I just thought you were, like, a wealth of information. And as someone who like I said, I started Instagram in 2012. I started YouTube in 2017.
Austen:I started TikTok in 2019, but I still wasn't totally sure, like, what I was doing there or what the deal was. And it wasn't until, like, late 2020, early 2021 that I finally started to have a little bit more time to say, okay. Like, really, what's TikTok? What's going on here? Right.
Austen:So your page was just so helpful for understanding, like, early trends and things like that because I knew that was a huge part of everyone's strategy. So just seeing what was trending and then how to do certain trends. And I'm pretty sure you also introduced me to cap cut. I mean, I was I was an in shot girly and just all the features on cap cut totally blew my mind. I'm like, I've learned how to do a lot on there from you.
Austen:So I think that's how I initially found you because I was also hopping on and sharing content tips. I haven't really done I'm still trying to find, like, what my niche is on TikTok, which I think is kind of interesting because it's been a few years. But for me on YouTube, it's so clear, like, the content creation tips, the long form, like, I really love YouTube as that format. And for Instagram, I feel like people resonate most when I post fashion and beauty and life in New York, which I I love creating about that. So for TikTok, it's kind of been I've tried a lot of different things.
Austen:I've tried more content creator tips. I've tried more beauty tutorials. So it's kind of like a mixed bag, which I like. But I also think that at the time that I was kind of doubling down on sharing content creation tips and probably, like, reaching out to brands and making money because at the time, that was something that not a lot of people were talking about. I we must have in the creator tips hashtag somewhere, like, pops past.
Helen:I love that. I love that. So it's interesting because you now almost have to find your niche on TikTok. Right? But and Mhmm.
Helen:It's possible that maybe what will come out of that is maybe that's where you lean on print the transparency and teaching people all of these tips that you just shared us here shared with us here. Because maybe that could be a fun little at least part of a a series of content that you can maybe put out as as a full time influencer blah blah blah. I think that's how I ended up following you. Because one of your videos might have started that way as someone who does content creation full time. And I was, like, curious.
Helen:Let me see how she's doing this. And I think that's what what drew me to you. So however that connection happened, I'm glad that we got here so that we could share your knowledge with everybody in my audience, and I'm excited that everybody seems very happy in the chat, that it's been helpful, and I really love that. So thank you so much for sharing with us. Is there anything that you would like to say to people who maybe are hesitant?
Helen:They think they can't do it. They think, oh, gosh. I don't have enough followers, or I just am I'm not good enough. As a content creator, you understand how to make videos, but I have a 35 year production career. You don't have that, so you had to figure it out.
Helen:So you're you know, in terms of people who might be aspiring and they watch my videos, I think, she's a director. Of course, she knows how to do all this editing. But you know how to do it, and you've just taught yourself. Right?
Austen:Oh, yeah. Well, I think that trying anything yourself first is so key. And then when you try something and you're like, this is taking me 18 hours, like, I can either do it for 18 hours or I can outsource is That's important. Is really important. So I still do all my own short form editing, but last year, I finally outsourced YouTube video editing, which, again, I know how to do, but, like, I'm just never gonna be as expert as someone who has spent, you know, many more hours in Premiere Pro and who's learned so much.
Austen:So I have a great editor, Sean, who's, like, so helpful and constantly a lifesaver who edits my YouTube stuff long form. But, again, I feel like, it's very Marie Forleo. Like, everything is figureoutable. It's like we have Google. We have TikTok.
Austen:We have so many resources to figure things out. And if you if you want to learn something, you can. And it's just a matter of finding the right person to to connect with you and, like, share these resources. So that's the other thing about this industry is, like, you and I can both share different kinds of content creation tips, but it's gonna be 2 totally different things at the end of the day because you have a style. I have a style.
Austen:You have a totally different professional background that enables you to teach things in, like, such an efficient and thorough way. And then sometimes, you know, I'm figuring some stuff out along as I go as I do with lots of things in life, like learning how to cook and having to look up on YouTube, how to, you know, mince garlic back when I first got like, you know, actual nice pans to use and stuff. Oh
Helen:my gosh. Which was recently at your wedding, probably. Right? So congratulations. Because aren't you recently married?
Austen:Yes. It's been 6 months. Yeah. Oh,
Helen:congratulations. That's so great.
Austen:Thank you.
Helen:Alright. So the last question, and then we're gonna let you go and enjoy your day, which is, do you have anything that was, like, a best piece of advice that you've received in your life that you hold on to, that you've always think about?
Austen:Oh, man. I remember at the end of one of my, magazine internships when I was in college, the fashion assistant was kind of offered to do these, like, exit interviews with everyone, and they had really overhired that summer. So there were, like, 30 fashion closet interns. And so there was a lot of personalities. There was a lot going on.
Austen:But at the end of the summer, he looked at me and was like, honestly, every single person in this room, you're gonna be in touch with for the next, like, 15 to 20 years to come. So even if someone annoyed you one day or, like, you know, they they took credit for something you did or, like, they went to lunch when you were gonna go to lunch and you had to wait. He was like, really? Just never burn a bridge. And I think that even when you want to, and it can be tempting sometimes, just being professional, being nice, like, it's amazing how that's always come back to help me over the years and how Wow.
Austen:I am grateful that I've I've taken that and kind of run with it because it's, like everyone from those internships are, like, editors now or they work in PR or they work in marketing for a new tech startup too. Like, it's just
Helen:my god.
Austen:It's crazy to see where everyone's landed now that I am, like, many years later and can see that. And I'm just so appreciative for everyone who's helped me along the way and who's liked videos and shared things with people, passed my resume on. So I think your network is so important. And, yeah, just be nice.
Helen:Yeah. Be nice. Karma is a bitch, and karma is a queen or whatever as we can quote Taylor. Right?
Austen:I know that you're a fan. The guy on the screen.
Helen:Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your expertise, and I just adore you. And when I met you that day at the Nuuly event, I knew I'm saying, we're gonna get together again, and I'm so happy we're able to make this happen. So if anybody's listening just via a podcast platform and you first of all, I will include all of Austen's links in the show notes. They will be we're gonna have a newsletter featuring you, Austen.
Helen:I don't even know if I told you that, but I'm this is also going to be one of our Friday newsletters where the hot takes are up there, but then they're gonna have to listen to all the details. So that's gonna be really awesome. So you'll have links to everything. You can provide me links to whatever you'd like to include in that, and it'll be released today with this podcast. I'm excited.
Helen:And And if you landed here by accident, just go to hellosocialize.com and make sure you're getting the newsletter so that you have all the links and all the things and know all about upcoming workshops. Thank you again, Austin. Have a great day.
Austen:Thank you so much for having me.
Helen:Have a happy Friday. Okay. Bye.
Austen:You too. See you later.
