Note: This transcript was automatically generated and may include typos.

Introduction

[00:00:18] Hey there. Welcome back to the dollar sprout podcast. Thanks so much for being here. Today’s guest is content strategist, Marissa Jo, also known as MJ. You might’ve read her story on Huff post or good morning America of how she left her full-time corporate career in 2020. To become an entrepreneur and full-time content creator today, Marissa helps creatives and coaches create a Tik TOK strategy to get seen, heard, and paid.

[00:00:49] She’s also the co-founder of space-time mono-tasking, which offers. Coworking focused sessions. If you’re someone like me who gets distracted easily and sometimes just needs the accountability of other people, then space-time mono-tasking was created with you in mind. And if you’re a coach, a content creator or any service-based business owner, I highly recommend you go follow MJ.

[00:01:13] She posts super helpful tips on content creation, mindset and business, and she’s really. Uh, relatable and genuine person. She’s not afraid to talk about the, not so pretty parts of entrepreneurship, like burnout and unlearning hustle and productivity culture, which I always love it. Appreciate her.

[00:01:36] TechTalk is it’s Marissa Jo, that’s it. S M a R I S a J O. Please. Welcome Marissa Jo. Everybody.

Interview with Marisa Jo

[00:01:47]

[00:01:48] Megan: Hey, MJ, thanks so much for being here on the show today. Really excited to have you.

[00:01:55] Marisa Jo (MJ): Thank you so much. I’m excited to talk to you.

[00:01:58] Megan: Yeah. Um, so I told you this before we started recording here, but I’ve been following your content on Tik TOK for, I think over a year at this point. And you have, in my opinion, some of the best content on tech, talk about growing a business and about specifically leveraging tick, talk to grow your business and make more money.

[00:02:22] So really excited to pick your brain about some of this stuff today. And I know that true. It’s true. Yeah, no, it’s absolutely true. I think that, you know, there’s a lot of standard, like, oh, this audio is viral. Use this audio in this format and you’re going to go viral. And that’s like, not at all the kind of content that you create.

[00:02:49] You have so many unique ideas and every time that I see one of your videos, I’m just like, oh, I never, I never thought about this in this way. So I really appreciate that about your content.

[00:02:59] Marisa Jo (MJ): thank you. Yeah, it’s, that’s the thing it’s like, it’s, there’s all the generic tips that you can give and all of the obvious things about creating content on Tech-Talk, but I love to help people build a strategy that actually works for that, because I know firsthand, that most strategies don’t work for me because I’m so prone to burning out and like, you know, getting exhausted. So it’s cool to, to have somebody recognize that I.

[00:03:24] I like to kind of take it a step further, than just, you know, here’s your use this audio. and You’re going to go viral and then you’re gonna make all the money. and you’re welcome.

[00:03:31] Megan: Yeah. So I know that you’ve worked with business owners. You’ve done like tick tock audits and you’ve offered different consulting services for tech talks. So you’ve like, you know, what’s going on with a lot of business owners on Tech-Talk.

[00:03:46] And I’m curious from your experience working with your clients, what are some of the most common myths about creating content for your business? Either in general or specifically for Tech-Talk

[00:04:01] Marisa Jo (MJ): it’s not so much a myth that tick-tock experts are, perpetuating but it’s, it’s more like the myths that we tell ourselves. And I think the biggest thing. is just the overthinking and the perfectionism that people in business owners and people

[00:04:15] who want to be on Tik TOK tend to have towards the platform.

[00:04:19] So I think like the myth in this situation is I have to show up in this way to be seen on the, for you page, or I have to make this kind of video to succeed. And I mean, those are myths. That’s what they are. they’re not, that’s not true. You know, these aren’t billboards where you have to get everything perfect and you’re paying a million dollars to have this billboard that people are gonna see it’s you know, it’s an 11 second video, It’s not that serious, but people see the potential of tech talk and they see that, oh, my business could blow up and I could go viral. So they overthink until You know, they’re exhausted and then they never end up posting anything. So I think that’s the biggest thing, is like just the insane. amounts of perfectionism that people have before they’ve even posted a single video.

[00:05:06] Megan: Yeah. That’s, that feels very true for me personally, as a perfectionist and just someone who is, just very non video oriented, as I’ve mentioned before on this podcast. What do you think are some of the best ways or helpful tips to kind of get out of that, cycle of perfectionism and actually just start creating content?

[00:05:30] Is the answer just, just start, is it that obvious?

[00:05:36] Marisa Jo (MJ): I’m like, well, yeah, I mean, that’s The thing. I am the world’s biggest? I call myself a recovering perfectionist, but sometimes it’s just perfectionist. Like I, you know, sometimes I forget that I have to work on fighting back against. it, but So, I, I know the feeling more than anybody. Um, and even now, you know, two years in, I’m going through ups and downs, of the willingness to post online, just because, it’s, you know, you get in your head.

[00:06:01] So even as a seasoned tick-tock creator, it, it’s not any easier to to kind of get over that. But I would say the thing that made me feel comfortable just starting was the phrase, take messy action. And I mean, I’m sure people have seen that all over the internet, but to me, it’s, it was just like the tiny permission slip that I needed to not upload a perfect first video or a perfect second video.

[00:06:28] You know, like just putting your face out there, putting your story online, talking about what you do.

[00:06:35] You have to start just with a baby step. And that just might be a ten second video. Like it doesn’t have to be this huge plan. Like you don’t have to create a huge strategy just to decide to start. So That’s always my best advice to people who are new is just take messy action.

[00:06:51] And post something, because then you go from there, there’s no way of knowing how you’re going to feel about it or what the response is going to be or what questions people are going to have to dictate the next step. Like you have to do something before you can over. it. Start overthinking.

[00:07:08] Megan: Yeah, I think that something that also perfectionism is something that’s kept me stuck in like every area of life in business almost.

[00:07:17] And then another thing is , it can be so overwhelming, especially if you’re a new business owner or you’re somebody who’s like just generally not used to being on video or creating content. How do you, how do you know what to post? How do you know what kind of content to create, you know, and you have this great freebie, which is called bottomless content.

[00:07:39] I’ve downloaded this myself and it’s been really helpful. I’ve been working through it for my business. The, can you kind of walk us through that process and some ideas for just, how do you figure out what to post? How do you create your first content plan?

[00:07:58] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah. So the bottomless content. Exercise is essentially training people to see beyond their own perspective of their subject matter I think that’s where a lot of experts in their industry. Struggle is like dumbing down what they have to say So to speak to make it bite-sized and digestible to people who have no idea what they’re talking about, which you know, typically their ideal clients are you know, They don’t know anything about what they’re trying to teach So the bottomless content exercise is like this cool thing where you look at all the different angles that you could approach your topic. at.

[00:08:37] You think of all the different methods of filming. you think of all of the different, limiting beliefs of your customer, and then you kind of mix and match all of those different angles to create different pieces of content.

[00:08:50] So it’s a PDF. you basically start out by making a list of any and all topics that you want to make content. about. So like, you know, for a business coach, this might be like Pinterest or sales calls or niching down or bookkeeping. And then you go in under, under each topic header, you list out all of the very specific frustrations desires or limiting beliefs that your ideal audience has around that topic. So for example, let’s just say for email marketing, a frustration might be.

[00:09:24] Uh, I’m having trouble getting people to open my emails A desire might be, I want to make passive income through my email funnels and a limiting belief of your ideal audience. might be, I have to have 5,000 people on my email list to make money.

[00:09:40] So under each of those topics that you have information to give, you’re going to list as many frustrations desires, and limiting beliefs that you can. And then you’re going to think of all of the different types of content, like styles like the formats that you enjoy, actually making. So for newbies and for you know, business owners who wouldn’t consider themselves content creators, they’re really just business owners who know they need to get on Tik TOK. You really want to spend some time swiping through the, for you page and really thinking like, can I make this, could I see myself making this content. So

[00:10:20] Don’t get stuck, like seeing people, making a dancing video and going, oh my God, I have to figure out how to dance this isn’t my night.

[00:10:27] You know, this is my biggest nightmare. Like, don’t make that video then. So you really want to go through and think, okay, I could do this. I could do this, this, this seems doable. And so those types of content write those down. So is it like you sharing a personal win or a client win? Just talking straight to camera. That’s a style of filming. Is that you, um, giving insightful advice, kind of just like a couple sentences of advice, is it you posing a question?

[00:10:57] Is it you teaching a new concept or a new method? Is it you sharing a quote? So these are all different styles of like filming and, and video formats that can be. Used over and over and over, but business earth, but people who are new, a Tik TOK think like, oh, well I already made that video. I can’t make it again.

[00:11:18] So the whole concept of the bottomless content exercise is to get all of those, um, all of those topics that you have expertise on, then you think of all of the different angles to approach it from the frustrations desires and limiting beliefs. And then you think of all of the different styles of content that you could make and then you mix and match them all.

[00:11:44] So for instance, you know, the first tip top could be about email marketing. You’re coming at it at an angle where you’re, you’re hitting on their limiting belief about email marketing and the style that you’re doing it in. Is it. And then your second tech talk could be on the topic of niching down. And then the angle that you’re coming at could hit on a frustration that people have about niching down.

[00:12:09] And then the style that you’re hitting it at is by sharing a quote. So the whole point of the exercise is that, you know, I have this? thing on there where it says, You know, if you have 10 topics and 15 different angles and 10 different video styles, and you do you know, the cross, the cross multiplication that we all learned in, you know, whatever seventh grade, then that gives you 1500 Different combinations. So obviously I’m not telling you to go make 1500 pieces of content, but it’s really an exaggeration to get people to realize like, Hey, you can mix and match until the cows come home. you can make what seems like the same video to you. Over and over because you’re hitting at it.

[00:12:52] You know, You’re attacking the issue from a bunch of different angles, in in a bunch of different video styles. So the whole point is getting people to realize that, like, It doesn’t have to be that hard.

[00:13:07] It doesn’t have to be super complicated And like this long process where you need a whole script, like you can have a video where you’re just quoting someone and that’s the whole video. So That was very long-winded. But I hope that I hope that I’ll make.

[00:13:24] Megan: Yeah, no, that was great. And, you mentioned one of the styles, maybe more than one, but one being a trend and I’m not going to mention the other styles that are in here.

[00:13:34] So if you’re listening to this and you want it. It is 100% such a helpful exercise. We will link to it in the show notes, so go download it. But that the styles portion, when I looked at this, I was like, oh, that’s so helpful. I never, like, I never saw some of these styles are considered, you know, these options are the fact that you can mix and match these styles with angles and you can, you know, mix and match for any topic that you cover in your business.

[00:14:06] And yeah, it, it’s great. It’s a wonderful exercise. So thank you so much for walking through that process with us. I do want to ask you, so you mentioned trends being one of the styles for videos that you can create. I think that this can be overwhelming for a lot of people because. I myself have like, you know, tried finding trends on tech talk before and felt like I just spent too much time scrolling through my, for you page, trying to figure out what was trending and like what kind of videos I should create.

[00:14:40] Is there a quick or easier way to find trends on Tik TOK

[00:14:46] Marisa Jo (MJ): Really the answer is no, which is just so bad I mean, I mean, I do have a workaround for you? But like my point is tick-tock, doesn’t make it easy for you to know what’s trending unless you just live on the fourth, which fortunately for you. I do. So I, I have an answer for you, but it’s It’s crazy. how, you know, when you go to the discover page and it tic talks tells you you know, this is trending. And you know, it’s actually been trending for two weeks and you know, it’s wave is pretty much over. So really if you don’t have time to consume. Content, all day, because that’s obviously the the best way of staying on the pulse of what’s happening.

[00:15:27] I honestly would just recommend going and following some of the accounts that literally only tell you what, like their literal only content is telling you. what’s trending. and you probably won’t see their stuff on your for you page, but I typically, when I’m like you know, pressed to get a video up or I need a trend, I just go to their account and see what’s trending. But other than that, tick-tock, doesn’t really make it that easy for you to figure that out.

[00:15:56] So, um, yeah, I would just kind of see if you can find some creators who tell you what’s trending as it’s trending rather than in in, um, hindsight, but the good news here is that when your new trends are not going to really take you as far as. you think, Um, they, are great to kind of get views and get your face out there and get a little bit of circulation.

[00:16:21] But the thing that a lot of newbies to Tik TOK get wrong is that they think they have to do trends and like they, they have to do only trends. I mean, and the problem with that is

[00:16:33] Everybody does trends. So, you know, you go viral and You you get 150,000 views on a trend that you posted and people go back to your account and they see you just uploading trends.

[00:16:46] They’re not going to think that you’re, doing that, and they’re not going to think that you’re there for a reason. And that you’re on Tik TOK intentionally. they’re going to think that you’re just there to participate in these trends Cause it’s a fun thing to do. So in order to really convert people, you have to have original.

[00:17:02] content up, which you know, is arguably, arguably I guess more difficult to make than trends because you have to think of it yourself. But again, that’s where the freebie comes in the bottom. was content And that should really be able to help people come up with original content.

[00:17:19] it’s kind of, kind of tricky because it it does help to just sit on Tik TOK all day and consume because you know, what’s going on.

[00:17:26] But at the same time, I don’t want people to get the, impression that that’s what you have to do to be able to succeed because it’s just one very small part of growing,

[00:17:36] Megan: Yeah. And that was just like one out of the 10 or more styles that you have listed on this free also. So it doesn’t have to be a, like if you’re creating a video, it doesn’t necessarily have to be something that is trending.

[00:17:52] Which is liberating if you ask me, cause I’m like not good at keeping up with trends. So just to reiterate, the four steps that we walked through, there were, making a list of the topics of content that you want to talk about. And then for each topic of content, the frustrations desires, or limiting beliefs that your ideal audience has around that topic.

[00:18:18] And then coming up with styles of content that you like, or that you want to experiment with creating and then mix and matching. So those are the four steps in your bottomless content freebie. Again, we are going to link that down below. So go check out the show notes, download that you will be singing MGAs, praises.

[00:18:37] I promise you. it’s a great exercise. Okay. So I want to talk about like general best practices for content creation. So people have gone through bottomless content. They know like they have a list of videos that they want to create, but what are some best practices that we can implement for each video to not like, we’re not trying to scam the algorithm.

[00:19:02] Everything here is above board. Right. But like, How do we make the algorithm work in our favor? Should we be looking at like certain length of videos or, hashtags posting time. I don’t know. What are the, the most important things here?

[00:19:21] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah, that’s the thing is like, this is where I get really frustrated on Tik TOK, because a lot of the advice that I see aimed to new.

[00:19:31] people. It’s just so over complicated and you know, post it this time and use this hashtag and use this type of hook and say this, and look at the camera this way and use your hands. And It’s like, if I just know that if I were starting out on the platform right now, all of this conflicting advice. would have me just looking like that. Swirly eyed emojis that’s has the squiggly mouth. like who do you even listen to What do you do? So to keep this extremely simple, The most important thing with the algorithm is watch time.

[00:20:05] Tick tock is a, is a business and it only cares about keeping people on the platform as long as possible. so they can show people ads. So the more you can keep people watching your content the more Tik TOK will reward you. So that means you want to have the most of your video You want your completion rate of the video is high as possible.

[00:20:28] So if you upload a 15 second video and people watched 12 seconds I’m not a mathematician. So I’m not even going to try at a percentage here, but that is a very high completion rate, if you upload a minute and a half long video where you’re, you know, talking about everything, you know, and spilling everything into 90 seconds and people only get through 10 seconds of it because it’s boring, the algorithm is going to go, okay, we’re not showing this to anyone else.

[00:20:55] So knowing this. The best piece of advice that I have for new people is to keep it shorter than you think and use a really compelling first three seconds.

[00:21:07] And that is the most important thing. Everything else you will figure out. That’s the thing like posting times. doesn’t matter. You’ll figure it out based on your audience. you know, if it’s a good video. it, it will get seen by people it’s not even worth not even worth stewing on and like taking up brain space. with. So the first and most important thing, keep it shorter than you And because you can always make a second, part, you can always make another video on it.

[00:21:34] You can always elaborate in the comments. You can always make more content, but it’s extremely hard to succeed when you’re new. If you’re uploading really long content

[00:21:45] because the whole, everybody knows Tik TOK is all about that quick, dopamine hit of like the swiping and the quick stuff. So. keep it short, use a really compelling first three seconds. And with your hook, if you go back to those frustrations desires, and limiting beliefs that you’ve already mapped out, use those as your hook. this is where a lot of business owners go wrong is they’re not actually talking to anyone they’re getting on camera. And they’re saying, I’m a great business consultant because I can get you money.

[00:22:19] Like they, they’re just talking about like what they do, and what their business is when they’re not actually talking to who they’re trying to reach. So in that first three to five seconds of your video, you want to be hitting on things that your ideal audience is thinking. So, if you’re really frustrated, with never having your emails opened, that’s a hook and.

[00:22:43] you tell them what They need to hear, you could say something like if you’re dying to make passive income, you know, if you have an amazing digital product and you’re dying to make passive income off of it, here’s what you need to do. Target them. The hook of your video? should be your headline. Like a newspaper headline. It should be immediately interesting to your ideal audience.

[00:23:02] So like this whole concept that I’m talking about is the most important thing that people should know starting. out. And then as far as best practices, there’s really only three other things that I would say are worth, really putting brain power into.

[00:23:17] And that’s true. Making sure the production quality is, is decent. I’m not even going to say good. I’m just going to say decent, you know, makes me we’ll can see you or, or whatever you’re filming and make sure they can hear you. So, you know, don’t, don’t use a potato as a microphone and don’t have the lights off and you’re going to be fine. The next one is just use trending music. So if it’s a video where the you’re just talking to camera and the music doesn’t matter like you don’t need a specific sound behind it for anything.

[00:23:46] Just go to the, Tik TOK, viral playlist pick a song and you know, turn it down. so people can hear you. And that’s it because using a trending song, is going to automatically put you on the, for you page a little bit more? And then the last thing is just to use relevant hashtag. So Don’t get overwhelmed by hashtag strategy here. Like really just use irrelevant hashtags and don’t fall for the big trending ones.

[00:24:12] Like what was it? Pepsi halftime.

[00:24:14] show. Like there’s no reason a business should be using Pepsi halftime show on the tag of their video because, you know, people think that, well, it’s trending I should use it, but that’s where you know, if you get in front of the wrong audience. That audience is not going to watch your stuff because it’s the wrong audience. And then what did we say earlier, Watch time is really important. So if you’re ending up in front of the wrong people, they’re not going to watch your stuff, even if it’s really good.

[00:24:41] And then they’re going to swipe and your video. is not going to get shown to anybody else. So it’s, it’s really about like,

[00:24:48] doing all these best practices, like the production quality of the music and the hashtags. And that’s just setting you up to like

[00:24:56] get in front of people. But then once you’re in front of people, well, that’s really all that you need to worry about is using a compelling first few seconds and keeping it short.

[00:25:05] And

[00:25:07] I really that’s it like, I’m I’m hesitant to. even go in any deeper Because it can be extremely overwhelming, for people, especially for business, owners who don’t necessarily love creating content. They, you know, they’re just, on it because they think they should. So that’s really the basics of it. There’s nothing more that you need to worry about. You don’t have to worry about.

[00:25:30] the ratio of trends to original content.

[00:25:33] You know, just as long as you’re doing both, that’s fine. You know, it’s good enough for me And you don’t have to worry about the posting times because it’s not even worth worrying about. So really.

[00:25:42] just do these basics and everything else you will get, you will get data back by how stuff performs and what people are commenting. And what’s getting viewed. You’re, you’re going to figure it out. It’s just a matter of getting started and to get started. You don’t need all this strategy, so don’t let people overwhelm you.

[00:26:02] Don’t let you know all the social media, advice that you hear overwhelming because it doesn’t have to be that complicated. It gets to be easy. Like That’s how I like to look at it. What if it. got to be easy because it does.

[00:26:15] Megan: I always appreciate a simple approach because I get easily overwhelmed when it comes to creating content. So yeah, I think the easier, the better, especially, like you said, for someone who’s not used to creating content or like doesn’t want to become an influencer, they just want to, grow their business.

[00:26:34] Marisa Jo (MJ): Right.

[00:26:36] Megan: You mentioned keeping your videos shorter than you think that they should be. And I’m curious, so Tik TOK recently announced the introduction of the 10 minute videos on the platform. And previously the cap was I think, three minutes. So I’m curious about your thoughts on this. Like should 10 minute videos be part of our Tik TOK content strategy?

[00:27:00] Like what are we doing here?

[00:27:02] Marisa Jo (MJ): Absolutely not. I I think honestly takes off is just trying to take over everybody they just, came out with stories,

[00:27:11] which is obviously an Instagram thing, which I guess came from Snapchat. So everybody’s just copying each other, but the 10 minute videos I think is just tick tock, trying to, compete with YouTube. But I don’t think Tech-Talk has the relationship with the creator. like YouTube treats, its creators very Well, And Tik TOK has people extremely frustrated. So I don’t see the 10 minute videos becoming relevant anytime soon. But that being said, if you have an amazing three and a half minute video made that you can convert into the tick talk dimensions. Like if you already have something that you could post, you

[00:27:51] might as well go for it and just post it because

[00:27:55] We don’t have enough data right now to know if the 10 minute videos are a strategic move or how people will end up using it, because it’s just

[00:28:02] so new. But we do know that tick-tock tends to reward users who use the new features.

[00:28:09] So not a bad idea to maybe throw a couple of longer videos, in the mix from time to time. But I just personally, I don’t see long form content being super critical on the platform, at least right now. So for the purposes of you know, talking to business owners who are new to the platform, I would just say, don’t worry about it for the sake of, you know, keeping it simple and not overwhelming people, but that being said, I do like the idea of maybe encouraging people to post a minute and a half or two minutes, or, if you have something that’s four minutes, you know, you could try uploading that, but it does have to be extremely compelling in the beginning to get people to watch the whole thing. So

[00:28:53] I don’t know, I just don’t see the 10 minute option, really being a thing right now, but you know, who knows everybody was against stories. When they first got to Instagram and look where we are now. So who am I to say what’s going to happen. But at least for me personally, as a business owner, on Tik TOK, I don’t plan on using the 10 minute option. But that’s just me.

[00:29:15] Megan: Yeah. It seems like not, I mean, nobody is. Currently used to that on Tik TOK. And it feels like that’s just not, that’s not the place. It’s not the place I like, I know personally when I go on tech talk, I, I will get distracted if a video is more than like two minutes long.

[00:29:35] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah, And you, you have to mentally prepare to sit down with a video, you know, that’s where you make your lunch and you sit down with your favorite YouTuber and you watch their blog for 10 minutes. Like That’s a blob blank. That’s long. So especially on an app where people are flipping, you know, their thumb is flipping to the next video every five and a half seconds. It’s like good luck trying to, get people to sit there for five but five minutes.

[00:30:00] I meet. And it’s like, I just, I don’t necessarily see right now how that’s going to work, but who knows? we’ll see, we will see.

[00:30:08] Megan: Yeah. so this next question might be a little bit of a loaded question. It’s okay. If you don’t have an opinion on this. But so tick tock currently is I think most people would agree the best organic marketing platform.

[00:30:26] Businesses are still blowing up every day on tech talk. How much longer do you think that’s going to last? Because it used to be the case on Instagram too, you know? And now it’s way more difficult to grow organically on Instagram. So do you have any opinion on that or thoughts on the timeline of how much longer the golden days of tick-tock will last?

[00:30:51] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah, I think that’s the thing, like, I think in 2020, that was when It was the easiest to become a superstar,

[00:31:01] in a month. And obviously that can still happen. Like we saw Emily, Merico go crazy and get 10 million followers in four months or something ridiculous like that. But so there’s always going to be these anomalies and these cases that are just mind blowing and everything like that.

[00:31:17] So I don’t think it’s necessarily as easy as it was but that being said, I’m not a huge fan of the people saying.

[00:31:27] Yeah, I’ll dig it out before it’s too late. on. Like it’s getting harder.

[00:31:30] It’s getting harder because that, to me, if I put myself in the shoes of a beginner. I would go, okay, I missed the wave. like, I missed the Pote. I’m just going to wait for the next platform, because that sounds very overwhelming. And like they’re not wrong necessarily. You don’t want to miss the boat and it is getting harder, but I don’t like telling people like,

[00:31:50] hurry or it’s, you’re going to miss it because end of the day, if if we have a graph in front of us and like, you know, the graph of the wave of users, how it’s like first adopters.

[00:32:02] And then it’s the next wave. It’s like the People who are a little more open to using technology and then it hits the masses, you know, it’s kind of like a slow climb. It’s, there’s more users on the platform than there was in 2020, obviously. But looking at the big picture, we are still in tick tocks infancy, which to me is very liberating.

[00:32:24] Like that feels good in my body. just to say that like we are so early still because you know, how long has, has Instagram been around? I had one when I was 14 and I’m 28. Instagram has been around forever and it’s still huge. So the fact that, you know, Tik TOK has only been a thing since what, 20 19, 20 18, we’re only in year four, and really we’re only in year two, of it being a worldwide sensation. So

[00:32:53] looking at the big picture there’s time, there is totally time. But looking at, you know, in a vacuum from 2020 to now it’s looking a little panicky it’s feeling a little claustrophobic, and it’s feeling a little.

[00:33:07] scarce, but that’s not how it really is.

[00:33:10] I think if you zoom out a little bit, so

[00:33:14] I I don’t know. I just think I would encourage people. Like if you’re listening to this and you’re you have that feeling in your gut, that’s like nervous, excited. And I’m telling you, you’re hearing from somebody who literally makes a living from the platform that it’s not too late, and you’re getting that little feeling in your stomach I would encourage you to follow that feeling because.

[00:33:34] I am, I I’m The first one to be like, ah, I missed it. I’ll just wait for the next thing, because I, you know, I want to I want to have a fair chance, but you still have a fair chance. that’s the thing. There are way more users on the platform right now, but users does not mean creators.

[00:33:51] There’s a difference. There because people who just consume content and create stupid trends And never, you know, they’re not really on the platform for any reason. other than to see it as it, as a social network and make funny trends with their friends. You’re not really competing, with those people. like you’re competing quote, competing with the other people who are creating. consistent content. And there aren’t as many of those. as people think So

[00:34:14] Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t even know if I really answered that question.

[00:34:17] but I would just encourage people that if you have, like, If you’re listening to this episode, first of all, like you should probably start creating content because why did you even click on this episode?

[00:34:27] You know, because.

[00:34:28] tech talks and then you’re excited about tick-tock. So If it sounds like a thing

[00:34:32] you want to start doing, do it, especially if you’re a business owner

[00:34:37] Instagram right now. You’re not going to grow on as easily, at least I don’t think so. Watch me get, I’m going to get a hundred angry emails from Instagram, but if you were asking me this question, about Instagram, I would tell you it’s extremely hard to grow on Instagram right now.

[00:34:53] unless you do reels and follow other rules, but Tik TOK is still the fresh social platform to be on.

[00:35:00] So if you want to be on it, it is not too late.

Slow Round

[00:35:04] Megan: okay.

[00:35:06] So I have some questions for you for our solo round. I’m going to ask you my personal three favorite questions, that I love to ask people when they come on the show. So first question for the slow round for you, what is one of the best or most worthwhile investments that you’ve ever made in your business?

[00:35:28] And it could be an investment of money, time, energy, or something else.

[00:35:35] Marisa Jo (MJ): Hmm. I would say the best thing was investing in myself care, which is so annoying. But let me explain, honestly, like Taking it slow and not hustling. And grinding any more than you have. Because, you know, it’s, it’s easy to say don’t hustle and grind, but like as a new business owner, you kind of have to sometimes, and we all know that. So you know, you’re going to have to, at some points, but investing in like going slow and taking care of myself. And to me, that’s an investment because that might look like saying no to an extra client for the month or saying no to a brand deal or saying no to rushing this deadline, to, you know, whatever.

[00:36:25] So to me, investing in like my mental health and taking it slow and not burning out, that’s specifically what it is, is like not burning out is.

[00:36:37] to me the best thing I could have done in my first couple of years of business, because it’s just without a boss and without

[00:36:47] a company to work, , for it. You know, people who truly are entrepreneurs are on their own and don’t have a team. Like there’s nobody to tell you to stop. working. So it’s extremely difficult to kind of pace yourself and take it easy. And then I don’t know, it it’s just, to me, it feels like there’s always going to be, it’s always going to be easier to work.

[00:37:12] yourself into the ground. So to me, my my biggest investment has just been not doing that, and that has meant not making as much money. but that also means that I’m, I’m happier. I’m my wellbeing has gone up since quitting corporate, just because of this. And like, I think it’s so important to take care of ourselves because if you’re miserable while running your own business, why do you even run your own business?

[00:37:39] Like what’s, you know,

[00:37:42] Megan: Yeah, what a great answer. That’s nobody said that. So that’s a really good answer. And yeah, you’re so right. It is easy. Like oftentimes, I’ll find myself working until the wee hours of the morning doing stuff for my business. Um, and I think, yeah, it’s really difficult as an entrepreneur to create that structure for yourself, which also, I think this may be a good time to talk about space-time mono-tasking because you kind of have a solution for that. That can be really helpful for a lot of entrepreneurs or anybody who works from home really.

[00:38:18] Would you mind to share a little bit about space-time mono-tasking and, and what you guys offer?

[00:38:23] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah, It’s, it’s funny. I didn’t even think of that as a segue, but good one. Megan

[00:38:27] Great. Great. Now. So space-time mono-tasking is a company that I co-founded, with my friend, Anna, who we actually met on tech talk, which is just, of course we did. It’s a virtual coworking space. So we host focus sessions every day of the week, several times a day, either an hour or two hour sprints, where people can log on and essentially just co-work So we get up, we get on zoom together, we set the intention for the hour. So we all say like, what we’re going to do what our goals are for the hour. And then we all go on mute and we all work. And then we come out of our focus and we share how the session went and then that’s it. And it’s funny because as I talk about this in my little brain, I’m going, oh my God, this just sounds so funny.

[00:39:13] When you explain it, because it, you know, it just seems like, okay, so you

[00:39:17] have a business, where you get on zoom and work with people, but until you have experienced, it, it doesn’t make sense for the people who have ADHD or might have another flavor of neurodivergence. You probably have heard the term body doubling. So body doubling is when you.

[00:39:36] work or do do your tasks, while another person is there with you virtually or in person.

[00:39:42] So having the presence of another person around you while you’re trying to accomplish something, that’s what might be a little bit difficult to initiate can be really, helpful.

[00:39:52] And it’s a really simple tool for people who have trouble initiating tasks. And my experience since working from home and being self-employed as is a lot of other people’s experiences.

[00:40:04] that it’s extremely hard to get yourself to do the things that just aren’t fun, like taxes or invoicing, or just like, emails or, you know, it could even be something that you liked doing It could be working on canvas, but, you know, once it becomes a task and part of your job. can sometimes just be really hard. to initiate these things.

[00:40:27] So that’s what we do at space. no pun intended give people the time and the space to log on and do these things and really get in a state of flow because there’s so much research about, deep work. There’s a book by Cal Newport called deep work. and he talks about the importance of getting into a flow state and deep work to get things done. because all of us every day are at the mercy of our phones and our notifications and our. slack channels And our emails.

[00:40:56] And if we’re always, if our attention is always being pulled the second, our fundings, we’re never really going deep Like we’re not getting into our work.

[00:41:06] So that’s what we do. And it’s crazy. Just to, I’m just sitting here thinking about it. And it’s like ridiculous to me that I have a business that lets people work on zoom together. But

[00:41:18] really talking about it on Tik TOK, you know, I’ve had a couple of videos go viral where I’m showing myself doing this it’s we call it. Mono-tasking mono-tasking is the concept of doing one thing for a set amount of time So that is really counterintuitive to a lot of people.

[00:41:36] So you get on zoom with us, you do one thing for the entire entire hour, or at least that’s the goal. And you will be surprised what happens when you let yourself drop down into a flow state with no distractions and you just see what happens because the minute, people get uncomfy with the task that they’re doing, that they tend to reach for a distraction.

[00:41:57] But when you force yourself to sit down with other people on zoom, you really can’t. So I’ve uploaded. a few videos to tick tock talking about mono-tasking and about space-time and what we do. And it’s funny to see the feedback of people being like, wait, what, like, what is this? What is the point? Because it’s so counterintuitive to how everybody works.

[00:42:20] So it’s it’s just wild to me that, my journey has led me to co-founding a company like this, but it goes right back into the self care that I was talking about and taking it slow and not burning out. And a space-time has really helped myself personally, not burn out as fast because I’m, I’m not running on all cylinders all the time.

[00:42:45] I’m doing a few sessions of really deep work every day. And that’s pretty much it. you know, I’m not constantly working on my phone or my computer for eight hours. And then, looking back in the day and going, wow, I really didn’t get that much done because I was just answering my notifications all day. We all know that feeling.

[00:43:02] So yeah, it was, that was a really roundabout way of telling you about my business.

[00:43:09] Megan: no, you’re fine.

[00:43:11] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah. It’s, it’s just a cool way for people who know that they need to start working differently, but they work from home and don’t really have accountability or coworkers. So we’re essentially each other’s virtual coworkers. So for anybody who’s listening, We, we offer our first session for free.

[00:43:28] So if you’re, if you’re interested in coming and trying out a sprint I’ll give Megan, all the information, you could go to our website and use code focus. uh, F O C U S should get your first session, and Try it out. Cause it sounds crazy, but it’s incredible when you give it a shot.

[00:43:43] Megan: Yeah. I, 100% I have people friends and, clients or just people who also work from home or people who work in the same business that I freelance for.

[00:43:55] We’ll sometimes do accountability, coworking sessions, because I it’s like if you’re familiar with the four tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, which I have mentioned on this podcast before, I’m an obliger and so external accountability is huge for me. And also I, 100% agree with you about it being.

[00:44:16] Helpful and very important for self care. Because I mentioned earlier that I, sometimes spend, I like work into the wee hours of the morning on my business and a lot of the time that’s because I don’t manage my time. Well, during the day today, for example, I was feeling anxious about doing this podcast.

[00:44:35] So I haven’t done anything else. This podcast recording started at 2:30 PM. I have not worked today. Like this is the first productive thing that I’ve done. And if I had something like if I had, signed up for a virtual co-working session with space-time mono-tasking today, maybe that wouldn’t be the case .

[00:44:57] But definitely if anybody entrepreneurs or, people who work from home can relate to that, then space-time mono-tasking sounds like a great solution.

[00:45:08] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah, that’s the thing is like, oh, We Anna and I aren’t like, oh yeah, you peasants who don’t know how to work. Come, come to our sessions. Like, we’ll teach you. It’s like

[00:45:19] no, we need it more than anyone Hence why we started the company like Anna, Anna actually started it and then I joined her after like six months. But,

[00:45:27] this was born out of necessity for both of us.

[00:45:29] So it’s, you know, we’re all in the same boat, We’re all struggling with it. And everybody on the calls is, you know, we all have squiggly brains and,

[00:45:37] are just trying to work so we can, you know, we always say, if we have to work if we have to work, let’s do it less. and Let’s do it together. So, I think that, that says it all.

[00:45:48] Megan: Yeah. Okay. So that was the first question of the slow round, which is why we call this the slow round. Okay. Question number two for the slow round. In the last five years, what new belief behavior or habit has most improved your life and or business?

[00:46:11] Marisa Jo (MJ): Besides just prioritizing, self care, I think realizing that

[00:46:18] there really is no competition in business. I used to fall into this trap a lot. When I first started, I’m like, oh, well, I can’t say this, this. girl already said that. Or I have to phrase it differently because she’s, she’s saying the same thing or, no, I said this, and then they said this. so, you know, we’re, we’re doing the same way. We’re we’re competition blah, blah, blah. Like,

[00:46:42] that’s just not the case, like especially with attracting clients on tech talk specifically to relate it back to what we’re talking about. people show up because they you know, People are attracted to you because they find a video of you on the fourth you page, but they stay and they follow your journey. because of the vibe that you give off and because of a way that you approach the subject matter and because of you as a person, and so I think that really embodying the fact that. like there’s no competition. People are either going to be drawn to me or they’re not, And that’s not my problem. Like that’s not my responsibility to cater to people who are just never going to. want to work with me. That’s not, my problem. And it’s not, theirs either, you know, so it’s, it’s really just coming to terms with the fact that like you’re one of a kind and like, there’s, no point in focusing on what everybody else is doing, because it doesn’t matter.

[00:47:42] It really doesn’t matter. And it sounds so simple to just tell people to , not care what other people are doing. But I think especially on Tik TOK, it’s extremely easy to get into the comparison mode and where you’re scrolling and looking for inspiration. And then you start copying people and it, like, it’s just never a good route to go down and it’s not going to work either So really staying true to like who you are, what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and who you’re talking about.

[00:48:09] That’s just the biggest advice.

[00:48:10] that I can give, because it’s made the biggest shift for me in my business ever since kind of realizing that, all of that.

[00:48:17] Megan: It’s a tricky one to like really truly believe, especially if you, you know, are kind of in scarcity mindset or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, I think it is so huge and so important to like stop seeing people in your industry is competition it’s room for everybody.

[00:48:41] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah. And it goes back to the importance of really showing up authentically, because if you’re not showing up authentically people, aren’t going to know who you are And you’re just going to look like

[00:48:51] everybody else you, because they don’t know you. And they’re gonna see you as somebody who looks exactly the same as every other coach on the internet. that’s, you know, it kind of goes twofold, like realizing that nobody else has competition and using that to empower you to just be yourself. It’s So cliche. It really is like the best advice that I have ever come to terms with. is just, if you show up authentically online, people will find you your people will find you.

[00:49:27] That’s how tech talk works, but you have to show up authentically. for that to happen.

[00:49:33] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. This is authenticity is a theme that I feel like keeps coming up on this podcast because it is so important. And it’s also, easier said than done for some people, at least for me, especially on video. Do you have any tips, I guess, for people about how to show up authentically or how to practice showing up authentically

[00:49:56] Marisa Jo (MJ): Hm.

[00:49:57] Megan: that’s helped you?

[00:49:59] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah, I think especially with.

[00:50:01] being on camera, be weirder than you think. Uh, because just because people pick up a camera and they become statues. So if you tell yourself to be weirder than you think you’re probably not even gonna fully be yourself, like you’re going to, you know, if you pick up a camera and people’s instinct is to crank it all the way up to 10 level, 10 statute person,

[00:50:23] well, this is a great metaphor.

[00:50:25] Um, and you tell yourself to crank it back down to zero. you’re You’re realistically only going to crank it back down to like four. like,

[00:50:33] you’re still gonna be good on camera if you tell yourself to be weird. But telling myself like, okay, be weird. It adds more personality and authenticity to my content than I normally would. So that’s when I always tell myself, just kind of be weird and people are gonna like you more because you’re just going to show up more as yourself. But I would also say to kind of maybe script out the first line of your video.

[00:51:00] and free flow the rest. And This is something that you’ll get used to as you get used to making content, especially for people who are new, you might need to do a little bit of scripting early on, but once you get into it and you get used to it, and you have a little bit of an audience, like script out your hook and your compelling first line, but then just let the rest just come out because that’s when it’s going to sound.

[00:51:19] the most authentic. I think I think people can really tell when it’s, overly scripted and it’s a big turnoff, at least for me personally,

[00:51:26] at least for short form content, you know, of course, a lot of things have to be scripted, but It’s like, you know, an 11 second video. Doesn’t need to be scripted.

[00:51:38] Megan: I don’t know if this will be helpful for anybody listening to this, but I just thought of this because I had a business coach once who told me that the way that she records videos is she will script everything out. And then she’ll read through her script, like three to five times before she records and then she’ll record without the script.

[00:51:57] So she’s already said this stuff over and over and she doesn’t have it exactly memorized social, say it a little differently than it’s written.

[00:52:04] But

[00:52:05] Marisa Jo (MJ): it.

[00:52:06] Megan: yeah, I’ve, I’ve thought that that was great. And I was like, wow, that makes a lot of sense. Your videos are amazing. Um, yeah, I just thought about when you were talking about scripting.

[00:52:18] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah. that’s a good one. And also just talk you with, Ambra like, it’s your best friend? Like talk like you’re on FaceTime with somebody I think is a good tip for people to kind of get out of their own. It was just, You know, loosen up a little bit, which is obviously very much easier. said than done, but kind of just letting yourself relax on camera. because especially when you’re new on Tik TOK, something liberating. I used to tell myself, was, Hey, no, one’s watching you. It doesn’t matter. Like the fact that you don’t have an audience gets to be liberating. Like it doesn’t have to be a scary thing. No one’s watching So just post the video.

[00:52:54] Megan: Yeah. Okay. Last question that I have for you for the slow round, how has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success in your business? And do you have a favorite failure?

[00:53:09] Marisa Jo (MJ): When I was about Nine months into my coaching business for tick talk, my consulting, I was seeing everybody launch group programs, you know, where you, you get X amount of people five 20, however many in a program, you take them through it for six months and blah, blah, blah. You get the transformations. So I was like, okay, I need to do one of these because everybody else is doing one of these.

[00:53:39] And I I didn’t know how to launch. I didn’t know how to make a sales page. I didn’t know how to launch. So essentially, you know, I tried launching for two weeks and I was stressed the whole time and I was upset because I didn’t know what I was doing. And I kind of just expected people to like flock to what I was selling without really having to talk.

[00:54:02] about it. Um, and because I was doing it from a place

[00:54:06] of, Hey, everybody else is doing this.

[00:54:09] So I must have too as well. I wasn’t that excited about it, it was coming from a place of like, I should do this rather than, oh my God, I get to do this. So the way that I was, I was showing up about it online was very lackluster I wasn’t really excited to talk about it. I wasn’t excited to promote it. So of course it got no interest and after about like, you know, I think I set a month of launch time and after like 12 days or so I was like, I’m not doing this.

[00:54:40] Like, this is just not going to happen because I was almost getting to the point where I was hoping people wouldn’t sign up,

[00:54:46] because I knew that I didn’t want to do it So it’s funny to frame it as a failure because I don’t necessarily think that like failures are bad. And it was a great lesson for me to have. this quote failed launch because it really, proved that, something can work for everybody else.

[00:55:07] and you see people having

[00:55:10] You know, 50 K launches and I made 10 K in a month. Oh my God. I’m the best. And Like they make it seem easy and they don’t show behind the scenes. And they’re not saying how much they spent on ads or, or how big their team. Is And all they’re talking about is how much money they made? And it’s very easy to think that like, okay, well, if it’s working for them it will work for me. So I will do it and everything will be great and I’ll be rich, but that is not at all.

[00:55:36] how it works a spoiler, So really just learning the lesson. of like,

[00:55:42] Hey, if you don’t want to be doing it, you’re probably not going to do very well. at it. so you know, focus on things that get you excited and focus on things that you want to talk about because the difference is in. The energy of how you present it and how you show up about it.

[00:56:01] And that is what makes the big difference. So

[00:56:04] I think it was just a huge lesson. in staying true to myself and how I want to work with people and how I want to conduct myself. And it’s, It’s just an invaluable lesson, especially for somebody who is just starting out. You know, there’s really no other way to learn this stuff than to go through it.

[00:56:22] so I think, for anybody who’s listening, whether you’re a newbie or for, you know, if you’re in year 10 of your business, it’s like, I think failures are the best because you learn so much. And it’s just it’s data that you get to use to, to make your business better, and to make your life better. And it’s truly invaluable.

[00:56:43] and You cannot truly embody these lessons unless you fail. So we love a failure around here, you know,

[00:56:50] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. And I can absolutely relate to that failure. I kind of went through something similar with, my financial coaching business, which I mentioned to you earlier, before we started recording that I pivoted, but same, like I saw somebody selling a group coaching program, a financial coach selling group coaching program.

[00:57:08] And I was like, that’s what I should do. They’re making a lot of money and I hated it. I dreaded it. So I was very like, lackluster marketing did not, did not want to sell it. And so it didn’t sell, so, yeah. Great.

[00:57:26] Marisa Jo (MJ): The concept

[00:57:27] that something doesn’t sell, it’s the person selling. It doesn’t even like it

[00:57:31] Megan: right. Yeah. Sounds obvious. But like when you’re in it, you know, and when you you’re

[00:57:37] like, oh, that’s what I should be doing. It doesn’t feel obvious at the time, like you said. Yeah. It’s hindsight.

[00:57:45] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah.

[00:57:48] Megan: Well, that is all that I have for slower on questions. Thank you so much for being here, MJ, this was amazing. Before we go, would you mind to share with our audience where people can find you,

[00:58:02] Marisa Jo (MJ): Yeah. I am mainly just be bumping around, on Tik TOK and Instagram. so my sick talk. why did I use that word? specifically? I don’t. My Tik TOK is, um, it’s Marissa Jo it’s its M a R I S a J O and then my Instagram is just Marissa Jo. So yeah, I pretty much on my tech talk, I talk about content creation and tick-tock and working from home self-employment of hitting burnout, all the PR pretty much everything I said today. And then Instagram I’m pretty much just on stories. all the time, So, yeah, just, just come check me out. and we can, we can be friends.

[00:58:42] Megan: Nice. Do people use Instagram for anything other than stories these days? Cause I don’t

[00:58:48] Marisa Jo (MJ): I seriously have no idea that seriously. I have no desire to be on Instagram, besides stories. It’s such a Testament to short form video.

[00:58:57] Megan: Right? Tik TOK all the way.

[00:59:00] Marisa Jo (MJ): I know.

[00:59:00] Megan: Um, all right. Well, thanks so much for being here MJ .

[00:59:05] Marisa Jo (MJ): Thank you. so much. I appreciate it. And thank you all for listening.

[00:59:09] Megan: That’s it for this episode of the dollar spout podcast. Thanks so much for being here for listening to the show and thanks to MJ for being here and providing so much value. On this episode, I learned so much about Tech-Talk and I’m really excited to get out there and start creating more content for my own business.

[00:59:30] So I hope you are as well. Don’t forget to go to the show notes for the key takeaways for this episode, and also for the links to all of the resources mentioned, including M JS exercise, bottomless content. So the link to that exercise will be in the description and the show notes for this. If you enjoyed today’s episode, make sure to follow and whatever app you’re using to listen to the show.

[00:59:57] And if you really enjoyed this episode, then we would love for you to leave us a rating or review in your podcast app. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for being part of the dollar sprout community. And I will see you in the next episode.