Going Viral on TikTok and YouTube in the Wedding Industry [YouTube Marketing with Adriana Brauckmann, Part 7]

Transcript

I’ve been in the wedding industry for eight-ish years. The prenup is a platform that I started, I guess, three years ago now. My lovely husband who said, “You clearly like to talk. You never shut the f up.” So maybe you should start a podcast. I was like, “Can I still curse on the podcast?” I was like, “I can.”

I would say consistency is super important. Bad comments aren’t necessarily a bad thing. I spend a few hours for every guest. In the interview, I just want them to feel comfortable. It can go wherever I need it to go. And that way, it’s like even get in front of a window. Natural light works a lot better than having the artificial bright light episodes that I do solo. I’m getting more comfortable. But if it’s just me and the camera, I’m like… I can’t really do it. It’s really hard. The first video of mine that broke like 500,000 views, I was so excited about. I was like, “Oh, people are watching this.” Do you remember what it was? Yeah, it was about…

This episode may contain explicit language, not suitable for all audiences. And we’re back with another episode of the NJ Content Studio Creators Show. I’m your host, John Bertino, here with Steven Picanza. Steven, say hello. What’s up, everyone? And today, we’re super excited to have our lovely guest, Adriana Brauckmann, with Love Story TV and The Pre-Nup. Hello, hello. Thank you for having me, you guys. Super excited.

Adriana, tell us about The Pre-Nup, what it is and how it fits contextually within Love Stories TV. Sure. So, The Pre-Nup is a platform that I started, I guess, three years ago now. And I just wanted to promote wedding planning and make it accessible to everyone. Not everyone can have a planner. Even if you do have a planner, it’s a lot. It’s confusing.

And I’ve been in the wedding industry for eight-ish years, and I know a lot. And I just started kind of putting myself out. Pimp myself on TikTok. And I grew a little following. And then it was my lovely husband, Jake, who said there might be room for something more long form for this. You clearly like to talk. You never shut the eff up. So maybe you should start a podcast.

I was like, yeah, so he was so sweet. He got all the equipment, and he set me up and we’re in my living room. And I’m on Zoom with people and it starts to gain a little bit of traction. I’m like, oh, this is fun. And so probably like a year and a half in, I got an email from the then CEO of Love Stories TV. And Love Stories, if anyone doesn’t know, is this huge platform they have across all socials, the most followers or whatever that metric is, clearly. I know what I’m talking about. Go on. In the wedding industry.

So, they have a huge, huge following across like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, the whole nine. So, they were already well established. Yeah, yeah. They’ve been doing it for years. But their initial niche was wedding video because we focus so much on like the photos of things and that’s what gets promoted on socials. But seeing things in motion, you guys know it’s super different. So, they have the largest database of wedding video. And videographers. Yeah, yeah, wedding videographers. Sure, okay.

And that’s kind of how their socials grew too because they would post these amazing clips of different things that either went viral in weddings or just were really special, beautiful moments. But they got to a point where they were like, we kind of want to expand into some shows. Adjacent, adjacent category within wedding. Exactly, yeah, some more wedding stuff. So, Rachel Silver, then the CEO reached out and I thought that she was reaching out for like sponsored content for socials. And I was like, oh yeah, I’ll take the meeting. I saw two other people on it who are now my producers, Nadi and Arca, who are amazing.

But yeah, they were like, we love your podcast, and we want you to join our network. And I did last May. I joined with Love Stories TV. And this past fall, they were acquired by David’s Bridal. So yeah, it’s been kind of a little whirlwind roller coaster, but it’s been great. Wow. So that’s a new relationship between David’s Bridal and Love Stories TV. It’s fairly new within the year. Yeah. Pretty smart. And David’s Bridal. They’re doing pretty smart. So much right now. They are like what you thought of David’s Bridal in the past. It’s so different.

I just went to an event that they hosted during New York Bridal Fashion Week. They did align with Marchesa. So, you guys probably don’t know who Marchesa is, but she’s this incredible designer. Georgina Chapman is the designer for Marchesa. It’s a super luxury brand like A-Listers wear on the red carpet. And she has a line with David’s and it’s the only luxury bridal wear that you’ll be able to purchase online now. So, they’ve got their foot in two different stuffs. Wow. It’s awesome.

So, I want to go back to when you were just getting started. You were doing primarily short form content. Is that right? Yeah. Where did you focus your efforts platform wise? TikTok was where I started. So, I did TikTok for about a year before I even went on Instagram. I’ve always had a personal private Instagram for a friend’s family, rarely posted.

And posting on TikTok was like the scariest thing. That first time? Yes. Tell us about it. The first 100 times. Yeah. I didn’t tell anyone but my husband that I was doing it. And really quick, when you were taking the long form that you were doing on Zoom and making shorts out of that? Not yet. So, when I first started, I was just doing these little, short form videos just about what’s going to work best in your uplighting in your venue or what you should ask your caterer or these little videos that would be helpful to prioritize things they want to think of.

And then after I started the podcast, I would clip episodes, like the most interesting parts and I would put those on TikTok also. Sure. And how much of a following, how big did you get the following before you started to broaden into long form? It was probably about 10,000 followers around this time. So that was crazy. Nice. How long did it take you to get to that 10,000? I think it was like year and change. Yeah. It was slow going. It was slow going. Yeah. And it still is. There are times when I’m like, “Oh, I just want to be like the biggest and the baldest.” And then there’s also times where I’m like, “It’s going at the pace that it should, and it’ll get there.”
Nothing great happens overnight.

Well, I’m sure that’s something still. It’s that dopamine battle that’s inside your head. You want to go full speed, but you know. I know. I know. Logically, you’re like, “No, let’s go slow. We’ll grow at the pace we’re supposed to grow.” Yes. But now I’ve found that I have a good base, and they’re super engaged and it grows a little bit every day. So, I’m happy with where it is, but of course always looking to expand and grow.

Did you have any real breakthroughs with the short form before you started to broaden in long form? Breakthrough and short form, I would say that the first video of mine that broke like 500,000 views, I was so excited about. I was like, “Oh, people are watching this and liking it.”

Do you remember what it was? Yeah. It was about dresses that you could wear to a bridal shower. Hmm. Yeah. Do you have any particular feelings about why that one might have broken through? I think it’s all about the style and the layout. I didn’t know it at the time, but the visual hook. So, the verbal hook of course is always important, but this video particularly didn’t have any speaking. It didn’t have any caption.

It was just like, “May in,” I think it was a video of me from my own bridal shower, like about to cut the cake and then it cut to this reel of all different kinds of bridal dresses. But no voiceover. No. And it was just like a montage, like a bunch of cuts. Yeah. Whoa. And there was a big value in the trending sound too.

I think it’s kind of weird. Not that trending sounds aren’t as-Was it a trending music or sound like ASMR? Trending music. Yeah. Yeah. And I can’t remember what the song was, but it’s on my TikTok, I could find it. Have you seen that Mr. Beast clip that’s floating around right now with Mark Zuckerberg? And he specifically says that one of his keys to going mega viral is not talking. And one of his theories behind this is because it gives it more international reach for people that don’t speak English.

Interesting. That’s really interesting. So counterintuitive. Yeah. The key to going viral is to shut the fuck up. Well, I’m in trouble then. So are we. I simply cannot. Right. Right. Right. That’s really fascinating. I would like to see the data behind that. I mean, it’s Mr. Beast on the call with Mark Zuckerberg. So, it’s like, I hear you too, right?

You love that demeanor. What are those little assholes now? They’re the plain one. Yeah, I know. Exactly. By the way, 500,000 views are not nothing. It’s not nothing. No.
That’s shit. It’s not. And I’m still proud of it. And anything that gets any views, I’m like, this is great. Even if it’s not reaching a billion people, someone will ask a question, and I get to answer it and engage with them. So even a video that has almost no views, but if there are good comments and there’s value, you say that that quasi is success.
I think so. Yeah. Because that builds a relationship between me and the person on the other side. And that’s what the whole thing is about.

Right. So how many followers do you have now across the different platforms? Across the platforms. I think we’re at like 50K? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And that’s just your show, let alone Love3TV, which has got, I know that YouTube alone is almost at a million. Yeah. Yeah. Their YouTube’s huge. And that’s where my podcast goes to on video.

Like syndicated out. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Their social channels are huge. And my podcast clips go out to them as well. So, they get a lot of traction just because of the followers and the viewership that they have. Have you seen a spike in your followers since you’ve joined Love Stories?

No, not a spike. To be honest with you, it’s been still steady. Definitely the podcast clips do a lot better because the former were me in my house and it was iPhone footage
and me trying to cap cut these videos and put them together and it was like, not great. So now I have professionals doing it and those videos do a lot better.
But I focus a lot less on doing those talk to video short forms now because I have a lot more traction with the podcast.

Okay. Two big things you said right there. You said the podcast clips are doing better. Yeah. And to start, I think there’s this common mantra that production value means nothing. And you’re saying you’ve seen definitively in the data that ever since you joined a podcast set, a studio like environment, you’ve seen a distinct difference in performance.

A thousand percent. Wow. Yeah. A thousand percent. If I didn’t mention it, we’re here at NJ content studio in Haddonfield, New Jersey. We have three beautiful sets. Check out the walkthrough video at some point. They do. I got the tour. It’s so pretty. Amazing. You said podcast clips. And before we jumped on the mic, I was saying, do you long forms a bitch? Yes. And the longer I do this, the more I’m just reaffirmed that long form is tough.

So, starting with, I guess just short form, you see outperformance. It’s night and day, right? In some ways. So the short form really feeds the long form. So that is our primary base for promoting the podcast. That’s our advertising short form, getting it on Instagram and TikTok. And that’s how I would say 99% of listeners find us. No doubt. But I guess in terms of getting a video to, as Mike Desmarets would say, pop off. Shut out Mike Desmarets. In terms of getting a piece of content to pop off, has it been your experience that that’s much easier with short form than long form?

I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I, other than the podcast, I barely have dabbled in long form just because it is, it’s grueling. And there are creators that I know who do a phenomenal job and they do these vlogs and they’re incredible. It’s just for me, other than the podcast, long form, I can’t. It’s a lot. It’s a lot more of everything. Yes. And I mean, look, I’m currently having a moment. You’re having a moment, where- Okay girl, let’s explore your moment, John.

Well, it’s just that it’s a lot of work, the long form. And then not only that, but we tend to put, I tend, look at this, look at my notes. Look at the preparation. That’s not for a high school football coach running plays. Gotta play B2. B2. That’s my preparation, right? And I have no qualms about that because we have multiple layers of strategy behind what we’re doing here. Yeah. But it takes a ton of time.

And then I go to Instagram, I have a buddy sit in Steven’s seat or whatever, and we talk about dumb shit, like sauce versus gravy. By the way, sauce or gravy? I mean, it depends on what it is. Like Sunday gravy is with the meat. If there was meat in it, in the red sauce on Sunday, then it’s gravy. Just clear to tell. Yes. But if it’s like, you know, if it’s just a Marinara, it’s not gravy.

You know what I mean? I’m with Adriana. What? You’re a New York guy. I thought you were the sauce guy. I’m a sauce guy, but it’s funny. So my, one of my grandmothers was from the Bronx and the Sunday sauce was the gravy. Yes. That’s exactly what it is. But my dad being from Italy, everything was just a sauce because you make it real quick. He never believed in the gravy. Right. Right. Right. It makes sense.

I always just say “gravy” because I’m not going to just eat my… Oh, you do? Yeah. Well, I’m going to eat either a Buenaise or like, you know, this is, I don’t know if this is like just a family thing or if this is something that like all Italian families did or just mine, but sometimes my dad would make it tuna gravy. Oh, I do that. Yes. It’s very Italian. It’s the best. It’s the best. It’s very Italian. It’s the best. It’s tuna gravy. You know, I do it. I absolutely do it. We eat it at home maybe twice a month. I love canned tuna. Like, on the news. In the olive oil or in the water?

Yeah, Trenta. The water’s disgusting. It really is. You open up a can of tuna in water and its no… Just kill me. All right. So back on track, point being that goes viral and there might be 10 people that watch the long form, right? Right. And that is, that can be just absolutely maddening. So I mean, I’ll just leave it at that for the moment, but I’ll segue to this key point. I’m curious in general, what are some of the tricks you’ve learned in doing this now for three, four years? Yeah. About keeping people watching. How do you keep them engaged?

So, I mean, I still struggle with this consistency is obviously so important. Just making sure, even if it’s not every day, that it’s like, if you’re a three times a week person, then that’s what you’re doing. Because when, I mean, most creators, I would say have like full time jobs and other things that they’re doing. So it’s not really possible to just be so in all day, every day until you can make that your full time job, which, you know, if that’s the goal, that’s awesome. But I would say consistency is super important. Just seeing what does well. So just for example, that bridesmaid’s video.

Okay. Well, people liked that. Maybe they’ll like more fashion bridal things than they do. So just seeing what does well, paying attention to it and paying attention to what people are saying in the comments. Bad comments aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Controversy is good, right? Controversy is good. Yeah. And sometimes people say something in my video and they’re like, I don’t agree with that at all. I think this, this, and this. I’m like, that’s a pretty good point. Yeah, you’re right. You know, and you get these different opinions.

Yeah, but I would say for, for keeping people coming back, just paying attention less to yourself, which sounds crazy because it’s your content, but paying attention to what people are gravitating for. Yeah. It’s really important to put the audience first. Cliché to say, right? Yeah, but it shouldn’t. I have noticed the more I’ve started to focus on, okay, is the audience going to give a shit? Is this just my pet talking point that others, right? And trying to get away from what’s most important to me and making sure I’m putting the focus on the viewer.

Yeah. It really does make a difference. I want to double click on this though. Yeah. Have you thought at all about little tactical things you can do with the short form that gets them to stop turning away? You mentioned before visual hook, for example. Yeah. So maybe expand on that among other little tactics. Visual hook. Like, for example, you start the video, you’re sipping a water, and then you’re coming away from your sip and you’re just talking right into it. Really? You’ve seen a difference? Yeah. We’re like, for girls, it’s a little easier. Maybe boys can do ChapStick or lip gloss if you want, but sometimes I’ll start and I’m putting on my lip gloss as I’m talking. So it seems like supernatural and it’s not like a staged thing.

Producer Jim, you got any ChapStick over there? You might have some lip gloss. I do have lip gloss. Oh, wait a minute. You’re from Washington Township. You got chapstick. You know what? I have aqua-for. I keep aqua-for at all times because chapstick dries out your lips. Yeah, yeah. Not aqua-for. Keeps some moist and hydrated. You’re actually testing this? I’m going to be doing in motion at the beginning of the clip. I think you see it too. You see people grabbing a microphone and putting a microphone up or doing something. That’s interesting. I’ll just set up my camera. As I’m setting up, I start talking. I’ve tried it a bunch of times and it does work. Not always, but it does.

There’s a natural authenticity about that. What I’ve gotten from you, Adriana, is for example, a couple of minutes ago you mentioned that people are commenting on your post, and you’ll admit, “That’s a really good idea,” or “I didn’t think about that.” Yes, you are the expert, but you’re not coming in on it like, “I’ve been married 15 times and I’m like, “Jaja Gabor,” and you know what I mean? Let me tell you all the things. There’s a humbleness about it. The whole point of the prenup is that I’m not the star. The bride is.

I want to do what’s best for the bride and I want to hear what people are saying. Sometimes people come in with really mean personal stuff, which is weird, but you don’t pay attention to that. Yeah, I do think this morning or yesterday I posted something about lap-grown diamonds. I happen to think lap-grown diamonds are a genius. It’s a big regret of mine that I don’t have what I said, but it was before I knew what they were, which is a whole other conversation. I posted something about them not holding their value. Someone was like, “Well, real diamonds don’t hold their value either.” I was like, “Too shy.” That is true. Right.

Along that point of choosing subject matter, do you have a clear formula for this, or do you just go, “This is interesting. I want to talk about it.” Yeah, I don’t really have a formula. I’ll keep notes of content ideas and things that I think would be interesting. Sometimes I hit it, sometimes I don’t, but a lot of what I end up talking about and doing short form content on outside of podcast clips are inspired by what I’m talking about on the podcast.

If I’ll have a guest on who is, let’s say they’re a florist. I start thinking about floral things and what do people need to know about floral? I don’t have a great strategy of like, “Oh, this is going to be Monday we talk about florals, Tuesday we talk about food, Wednesday we talk about fashion.” That’s not me. One thing I do plan for is just on Instagram just because the feed matters a little bit more aesthetically. I use an app called Planoly.

I can at least see what the thumbnail is going to look like on the feed. Amongst the whole, yeah. Yeah, but that’s as far as planning goes, like kind of the extent of it. Speaking of content strategy and planning, have you noticed if any of the content from your show or the rest of the Love Stories TV network is making its way into David’s Bridal’s site? It is, yep. This was last week and I’m sure things filter through, but the prenup was on that first page of David’s Bridal. On the homepage? Yeah, yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was really cool. I met Kelly who was the new CEO of David’s and she’s amazing and hysterical, but I met her for the first time. She’s like, “Oh, she’s got this great Texas accent and big hair.”

She’s just fabulous. She’s like, “Oh, I feel like I know you because we have you on the David’s TV in the office.” It is cool to see that because I grew up with David’s. That was like you pass and it’s like I always loved weddings from when I was a kid. I saw him like, “Oh, wedding dresses.” It’s kind of a cool full circle moment. Right. Did you get your wedding dress from David’s Bridal? I did not. I did not get my wedding dress from David’s Bridal. In today’s day, it’s just so different especially because they’re expanding into that luxury market now. They are, I think I mentioned this earlier, but they’re the only place that you can purchase luxury online from. That’s been a big complaint that I hear from my audience.

I wish I could just order a dress instead of this whole Bridal shop experience. The production and theater of it. Yes. Isn’t that part of the allure? Isn’t that what like as a little girl, isn’t that what you’re like, isn’t that the moment sometimes even more important than the wedding? It’s going with your girls getting a little half blazed and baked and drunk and trying on dresses? You know what? It was my favorite part of the process. Once I picked my dress, I was almost sad because I was like, “No, I can’t play dress up anymore.”

I do get the other hand where it’s like, I mean, you guys probably don’t have this, but for a lot of girls, it’s like shopping for swimsuits. You go into the store and everyone’s ogling at you and maybe you’re not super comfortable with the way your shoulders look or whatever it is. You’re like just staring at- I hate that problem. Yeah. I hate it too. I can’t get my lats just the way I want them. Right. No, it can- Steven, how are your lats? The lats are okay. You can really see my calves though. I have a hard problem with my calves.

What’s the issue with the calves? They’re huge. I have big calves too. I’m a big calf girl. Are you? I am. Yes. The big calf club. What part of the boot are you, your people from? Maybe we come from the same part of the boot. My dad’s side of every piece. Exactly as the calf above the boot. Maybe we’re related. Maybe we are. The Bruce and Melissa regions where I think the calf is when you look at the whole boot. I think so. But you know what? I used to be so self-conscious of it, but now I’m like, “I love it. It’s great.” At least I have calves. Right.

All right, calf crew. Back to marketing here. This seems like a long-term strategy, a brilliant long-term strategy executed by David’s Bridal to not just sell dresses but build community. Do you think it’s working? I do. I do. They’re kind of in babyhood. They acquired this company called Pearl, and that’s their media company, and love stories kind of feeds Pearl. Their content does that, but I do. I think it’s really, really smart just in this evolving world of content and its social media and how are we going to differentiate ourselves?

This brand that people have known for such a long time for this one thing, I think they’re already doing a great job of getting their name out there in a different way, but I think they’re only going to expand. Do they pull you into strategy meetings with the other creators or just let you do whatever you want to do? I have two producers for the prenup, and we talk about … They mostly give me creative control, but they handle a lot of behind-the-scenes things and advertising and all that good stuff, but Tegan Girard, who has the half-baked harvest, it’s a blog.

Everyone follows her. She has like 5.5 million followers or something. People who probably don’t even know they follow her because she just has these great recipes, but my producer Erica was able to get her on the show. Sometimes they’ll have connections with people through different media companies and PR and they do help with that. Mostly it’s just prenup meetings or prenup meetings, but the other shows, I have relationships with those people and we have our own little group chats and ideas. At least as of yet, it’s not as though the marketing team is coming to you and saying, “Okay, here’s our objective across all channels. We want you guys to do more of X.” No. They give us a lot of creative control. In fact, one of the things that was a question and concern of mine when Love Stories was being acquired by David’s because I always have a lot of creative control and freedom.

I said to Rachel who she still is with David’s, but she was the Love Stories CEO. I was like, “Can I still curse on the podcast?” She’s like, “Yeah, you can still do whatever you want.” You can still drop an S-bomb. But that’s a concern of mine because David’s is like this huge corporation. Right, right. Is that like PC? Do I have to tone myself down? But I haven’t had to yet. Good. Don’t ever lose that control. That is you. It makes you. Thank you. So David’s acquired Love Stories. Where’s Pearl fit in? Pearl is like the media portion of David’s, excuse me. And then Love Stories media feeds the Pearl aspect of David. So Pearl is maybe running their advertising, running their digital media buys. Exactly. Like strategically figuring out where we need to show up. Love Stories is just curating and creating the content that feeds them. Yes, but it’s all under that David’s umbrella.

And David’s acquired Pearl around the same time as Love Stories? So I don’t know when Pearl was acquired or if it was something that they started. Within David’s. Within David’s, yeah. I would have to check on that because I don’t know for sure. But yeah. I’ve come across this content, this concept recently of content as a CRM. Have you ever heard this before? It’s this idea that if you have a content publishing network across the various aspects of that content network, you can use that to nurture buyers through the buyer’s journey. Everything from your stage, which is the prenuptial wedding planning to the wedding itself to honeymoon to planning for the next baby. And with the right data insights, you can track that actual individual or viewer down track the viewer down to the individual and serve them certain types of content that moves them through that, that very real buyer’s journey. I just think that’s such a clever premise.

I have no doubt that that’s ultimately what they’re up to here. I’m sure that is like what it actually is. I hadn’t heard that term, but yeah, I’m sure that’s exactly what they’re doing. And I love it. It’s brilliant. It makes so much sense. I think that’s a good example of that strategy, I think, that failed. I’m showing all my notes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hi, guys. Nobody can see this. What do you have for number four? But think about Bed Bath and Beyond. Wedding registry, get them in and then into Buy Buy Baby. But they have fucked their strategy up. Now they’re all basically out of business. Which I’m so sad about because I love Bed Bath and Beyond. But the not did the same thing. The not, yes. The bump, which I go into my, because I’m pregnant, the bump app every day. I’m like, “Oh, today, baby, is the size of an avocado.” I remember the bump, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that’s, I don’t know if the not started it or they just acquired it, but it’s, you know, you’re right. It’s that cool CRM thing to basically get you, you know, they want you to go back to the, it’s the mechanic. They don’t want to necessarily be the car salesman. They want to be the mechanic. They want you coming back every 3000 miles for an oil change, a tune up, your tires rotated, you have a kid, they need clothes, they need this, they need that. It’s smart. It’s really smart. When they need a divorce, you go to post-nop, whatever it is. I love, by the way, the cleverness of the prenup. Oh, thanks. Very clever, very clever. Yeah, some people get it, some people don’t, but we’ve come this far with it and, you know, I love it. It’s fun.

Now, something that I’ve noticed that a lot of brands are missing out on, and I don’t think David’s Bridal is doing this yet. Okay. So, a lot of the content that can be extracted from the video and audio that can find its way into the site to make incredible montages of content, or in other words, like Roundup-style posts on, you know, Adriana and even the other creators on Love Stories TV. Sure. There’s been this recurring theme of, oh, how to deal with- A mother-in-law. A mother-in-law, right? We deal with a lot of that. Extract those insights across the various videos, pull them into a piece of written content, get those words on the site, which is incredible for SEO, right?

And Google really appreciates, and now the LLM AI chatbots, really appreciate the aggregation of content from multiple sources and multiple subject matter experts, rather than David’s Bridal just raising their hand saying, “We are the foremost authority on how to deal with a mother-in-law issue during the wedding. Here’s 500 words on that.” Yeah. Instead, you’re pulling in insights from different individuals that have known credibility across the web on these topics and citing them and linking to them and referencing them in the actual content, and it is a game changer for SEO. Wow. Game changer, and no one’s doing it.

Oh my God, I need to pick your brain on this more because I am an SEO failure, and I just cannot understand it for the life of me. I saw this offshore. They didn’t teach SEO at Washington Township High School? I went to politics. I was a Catholic school girl, A, so the curriculum is a little different now, but SEO is just right over my head. For me, social media is a little bit different because you can try to learn the algorithm a little bit and it changes, and you can do these little tricks, but the keywords and stuff, that’s like.

Well, John, real quick, to what you just said, for a brand like David’s Bridal, is it better for them just to maybe just run ads on Google around that key topic than putting together a whole long form? Does that monetarily make better sense for them? I would say no. A brand like David’s Bridal should be doing all of the above. So, there’s a blog post, so to speak? Yes, and what listeners might be thinking is blogs dead, isn’t SEO dead? But here’s the thing, the LLM models, the chat GPTs, the Clods of the world, they’re relying on many of, if not all of the same signals as a traditional search engine. We’re saying traditional search engines now. Can you believe it? Where have we gone to? So for example- Antique search engines.

If you go to chat GPT- Yes. If you go to chat GPT and you search New Jersey Marketing consultant, we’re number one. Okay. Why? Do we do a bunch of AI search engine optimization? No, it’s our legacy SEO still resulting in higher visibility and rankings within chat GPT because they’re looking at most of the same factors. Right. So yes, going through the effort to extract key insights from social media videos, from interviews, from multimedia content, extracting those insights, getting them into the website can still pay and does pay massive dividends for brands within the LLM models.

Super, super interesting. Yeah, that’s not something I had thought of. I don’t know what they’re doing at that backend, but have you noticed if you go into Instagram and you search for something you want to see, photos of anyone and it’ll just give you like an AI answer? Do you guys see this happening? Oh yeah. So I don’t want that. Really? That, but if I wanted to have an AI answer, I would go to chat GPT or whatever the, you know, grok or whatever it is. But that’s not what I want from social media. Do you know what I mean? But social media wants you to stay on the platform.

So now they’re going to offer it in the platform, so you don’t go off the app. It makes sense. But like, I mean, I’m sure I’m the only crazy person, but I find myself like getting, I’m like, I gotta get this. This isn’t my assistant. I don’t want this. My assistant’s in, are you a grok gal or? My husband is. Yeah. My husband’s a grok guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Smart man. Well, what is your AI of choice? I mean, I use Gemini because I don’t use AI a ton yet. I’m sure I’ll be using it more and more every day. I find myself using it a little more. But yeah, I sometimes I’m like, oh, can you like teach me how to do this thing?

And I’m just like, whatever. But I have to learn it because you got it all at the time. So you’re going to get left behind. Right, right, right. I want to go through a few just common things that come up in our interviews with creators. So first of all, planning. We touched on this earlier. I’m a big planner, but not everybody is. I recently interviewed Natalie Brunell from Coin Stories. I don’t know if you know who she is. She’s a major figure in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin space. I’m sure my husband knows who she is. She’s incredible.

I was out in St. Louis hanging out with her. And when the subject of planning came up where I told her, I asked her what makes people watch? And she said the guests. And I said, okay, but how do you get the most traction out of those interviews? And she said, I invest hours into planning for every single guest. And yet I have no doubt that other creators, you’ll ask them and be like hours of planning. What are you talking? I mean, Steven just rolled out of bed for this interview. Yeah, yeah. I’m doodling on this sheet of notes.

I don’t know what the hell I’m looking at. I can’t even read. It’s a beautiful flower. So I’m curious, what’s your take on planning? How much is necessary? What level do you get into? So I said earlier about on socials, I’m not so oh plan, plan. It’s just kind of like, oh, this thing comes up and how does it fit in? But for long form and for podcasting, I spend a lot, a lot, a lot of time on prep. I just want to know the person as well as I can before I have a conversation with them. That’s my goal. Because in the interview, I just want them to feel comfortable.

I want them to be able to say whatever they feel like they can say. And I know them and it’s not this like whole intro of, you know, we’re here for a certain purpose. So I don’t need to know your whole life story on the podcast, but I do want to know it personally so that I can ask the right questions to you and get the best information out of you. So I do. I spend, I spend a few hours for every guest, um, just trying to get to know them on the internet as much as possible. Um, and then curating questions that are going to be best for them. Interesting.

I don’t feel so bad then for some of the time I’m investing genuinely. Cause I, I questioned myself. Yeah. Is this really worth it? Yeah. You know, now granted I could organize my research better. I’m trying. Well, it depends too, you know, and it depends on the guests. Like I, I have my sister come on, you know, every six or seven episodes and we do a movie recap and review of a wedding movie. Like a wedding movie? Yeah. Yeah. And the most research that I do is we watch the movie and we just riff and it’s, it’s a different format than my typical podcast.

It’s a little bit more fun, but people know when big Vic comes in, it’s like more silly and fun and lighthearted and maybe we’re not going to get as much dense wedding information, but we’re going to have a good laugh. We’re going to talk about some wedding stuff during your episodes. Are you fine? Do you have any canned questions that you ask everyone? Yeah, I do. I have, we call it our after party and we do what’s your honeymoon hotspot? What living guests would you invite to your wedding? Your signature cocktail?

What hors d’oeuvre would you never pass up? Song that gets you on a dance floor at a wedding and one practical piece of wedding advice. So something I want to ask you about speaking to Naval Ravikant. He has a tangent, which I’ve heard him revisit on multiple occasions about how ultimately your true competitive advantage is tapping into your most authentic self, what that self likes to do, the type of thing that other folks might find is work, but for you it doesn’t feel like work. And when you tap into that, you’re truly maximizing your competitive advantage over everyone else.

What’s your take on that? I think it’s brilliant. I don’t know if mine, because I think about this from time to time, I’ve heard this. I don’t know if mine is real or not, but I hear people often say, “Oh, it’s such work to meet with people, be on, have conversations,” where I’m like, “That’s my piece. If I can go talk with people, that’s like, I’m like, “Oh, thank God, I don’t have to be sitting alone bored. I’m learning something from someone else,” or I’m talking about something interesting or new that I haven’t yet. But I think that is brilliant. I mean, Naval Ravikant is brilliant.

Have you found that to be, do you feel as though you’re in the right place in what you’re doing? Because you certainly come off as incredibly natural in your recordings, in your videos. I’ve watched that and you seem right at home. Yeah. Like you’re not even trying. Thank you for saying that. I feel like I am. When people ask, I’m sure people ask you guys, “Oh, are you nervous or bored? Like people are going to see it?” I was definitely more nervous, I think I told you guys, when I started on TikTok doing the short form stuff and just feeling like I was maybe not inauthentic, but- You’re exposing yourself.

Yes. You feel a little bit nude. But when I’m sitting down with a person, I’m like, “Oh, this is, yeah, I do. I feel natural.” Even as opposed to episodes that I do solo, I’m getting more comfortable. But if it’s just me and the camera, I’m like- I can’t really do it. It’s really hard. At least not yet. It’s really hard. I’ve had to do it a couple of times if a guest cancels, just because studio time’s pretty expensive. I’m like, “All right, we’re getting in there. We’re doing a solo.” And I’ll do it. The last one that I did was the best yet, but before I’m like, so many cuts, so many in-betweens and I’m just like, “What was I talking about?” I don’t know.

Having the conversation is more comfortable for me. I got two things to this. Number one, the Japanese have a term for what, John, you’re referring to and what Nabil referred to, it’s called ikigai. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so ikigai. And I can’t – There’s a diagram where- Creepy guy? Creepy guy. We’ll get to that in a second. It’s like what the world needs, what you’re good at, what you could be paid for, and what doesn’t feel like work. And when you can look at the Venn diagram that overlaps that, it’s ikigai, the great book. Highly recommend that book.

I’ve gifted that book to so many people because I believe in that concept. And actually, the centenarian, the people who live to be 100, so it’s in the blue zone, whatever they’re called. Often, they attribute them having longevity in life. Obviously, it’s location, its diet, but it’s the fact that they have their purpose. They know what their ikigai is. So, you could be 95 years old walking uphill both ways to go tend to your garden, but that’s your fucking purpose in life and you have a reason to wake up every day. Totally. And I think that is such an important thing too, to figure out what your purpose is because everyone’s priorities, they’re not better or worse than each other’s, but maybe your number one priority is work, but that’s what’s able to fuel you to be the best family person that you can be.

That’s exactly right. It’s not that being working your number one priority makes you a bad dad or husband at all. It’s just that that is your purpose and that’s what fuels you to do the best in your life. Exactly right. The second you were saying, Adriana, was about the you sit there and the camera’s on and you don’t have a gas or you have to carry that gas. It happens a lot. I used to do improv comedy. I did improv for like 10 plus years. I don’t know how you do it. I got to be honest. It has a lot. I don’t know either how I did it.

I actually, okay, I did this weird. I was living in San Diego at the time, and I joined a dinner theater troupe that was called Joey Maria’s Comedy Italian Wedding. I entered an ad in the newspaper, legit, that said wanted Italian males with an East Coast accent. I was like, that’s me. Bingo, baby. I walked into my audition with a box of cannolis and I didn’t have to say anything. They’re like, you’re hired. Amazing. Oh, it’s so good. By doing that, it kind of got me into studying improv. I did improv Olympics. I did a couple other improv troupes.

And then I also liked the idea of Toastmasters, right? Being able to publicly speak, being able to do a 60 second speech when you’re just handed a topic and you have to go. It is an incredible life skill that as podcasters and content creators, I cannot recommend enough for people to just be uncomfortable because you’re going to be growing there and you’re going to learn how to talk on your feet. It’s really, really good advice because it’s tough. I commend comedians so much and just getting up there. I don’t know. It’s really tough. It’s really, really tough.

So, just to type a few loose ends before we get into the bonus content. One thing left on my list is just the technical studio setup. Your content, aside from your podcast content, the stuff you just do at your house or whatever looks super solid. Oh, thank you so much. I mean, it looks legit. Thank you so much. And as we kind of referenced earlier, I’m not doing a lot of that yet. So straight to cam and if I do, I’ve got this entire studio to use, but I’m always curious about how do you jump on at home but make it look polished, but not too polished, the whole thing.

So, what’s you’re at home setup and what’s kind of your routine for making it easy to jump in and out without it being too painful and time consuming? So I don’t have a lot of equipment. I used to have a little stand that I would set up and a little light. Not anymore. You ditched it. I ditched it. Do I have my phone? I do have my phone on me. So I have this little Octo Buddy thing. Interesting. What is that? It just connects to like a mirror or window. Oh my gosh, it’s like an octopus. Yeah, it’s only an octopus and it’s a suction. So it can go wherever I need it to go.

And that way it’s like even and I usually will get in front of a window during the daytime because I find that the natural light works a lot better than having like the artificial bright light. A nuance question, but you say in front of a window, window to your side, window head on. Window on me. So, I have to play. So, you’re putting that, you’re attaching up to the window. Yeah, yeah. We’re, you know, wherever the sunlight’s coming in at that time of day. So, I have to play with like where I’m going to be. Like a cat. Like a cat. Like a cat.

Yeah, but I’ll set it up and I usually will wait for a moment like that my husband’s gone because I still cannot have him be around when I do short form. That’s the reason why he’s in the car right now. Correct. Long form. Long form. He can be here all day. But there’s something about short form that is like, because I script it. Okay, so you do script it. Do you know how to use a transcript tool? No, no. So, you script it and memorize it?

I script it, I’ll put it in notes and then I’ll like come out of the camera, I swipe out of it and then I look at the next thing I’m going to say if it’s more than like, you know, 10, 15 seconds, something that I can’t memorize and I’ll come back in and I’ll do the little like, okay, and then this thing. Okay. So, you’re going to do a sentence or two at a time, stopping when you need to go back to the notes. That’s funny, that’s how I used to do my intros upstairs. And then you’ll just rely on the editing to just get sentence by sentence by sentence.

Yeah, and then I trim it like as short as possible so that it’s not, you know, these breaks and spaces in between. It’s not sexy, but it is, that’s what I do. You’re not using any apps like Big Voo or something where you can have like the teleprompter on your screen. I never do that by the way. That would make your life a lot easier. It would make my life a lot easier. GIGVU is a legit awesome app. Okay. They’re like five bucks, Adriana. Okay, yeah. I should just do it because it’s us. It is like a little bit time consuming. But even if I have to read ads on screen like in studio for long form for podcasts, I can’t see, and I won’t wear my glasses. So, I’m like, this episode is brought to you by Honeymoon. Right. I don’t know. But yeah, it’s, I could learn some tricks.