Shadowing Practice: How to ACTUALLY become an influencer in 2026 (step by step!) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This is the year you're going to become a content creator and influencer.
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Hi guys, welcome back to the channel.
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My name is Mickey
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and today I'm going to be teaching you exactly how to build your social media starting from zero followers.
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And I promise if you follow all of these steps, you will become the content creator that you've always wanted to be.
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We'll also address some of the common pitfalls to avoid.
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And if you're wondering what my credentials are, my name is Mickey.
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I have been a content creator since 2017 and here are my social media platforms.
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I have 900k on Instagram, 2 .5 million on TikTok, and of course, 1 .3 million here on YouTube.
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Combined, we have over 4 .5 million followers across platforms, and it is my job to make content, make videos, get paid to travel the world,
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and get to work with some of my dream brands like SK2, La Roche -Rosé, Delta Airlines, Tourism Board, Barcat Lily is a Purina girly.
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It's truly all a dream come true,
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and today I'm going to share with you the secrets and the step -by -step on how you can do it too.
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There are so many perks to being a creator.
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Most importantly, having a community of people to be able to call your friends.
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PR packages, unlimited skincare, makeup, luxurious experiences that you would never otherwise plan for yourself.
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New streams of income to earn money, including AdSense, affiliate, brand deals.
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I think it's no secret that creators get paid pretty well for what they do.
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I remember the first time I took a brand deal
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that paid me more than a 12 -hour nursing ship would pay me.
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And as my social media grew, then a brand deal became a week of shifts, a month of shifts
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and far beyond what I could have ever imagined for myself.
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So without further ado, let's get into the video.
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Step one, you're gonna pick your niche.
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The more niche you are, the faster you will grow.
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For some, it might be really obvious what you wanna film.
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Maybe you are a pro makeup artist and you're really, really good at nose contour.
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Perhaps you already know you want to film dance videos, but a lot of us don't know exactly.
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And the good news is you don't have to pick just one thing.
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This is the question you're gonna ask yourself to figure out what your niche is.
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What unique value can I provide?
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Maybe you're an accountant and you're super familiar with tax laws.
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Perhaps you're a nurse like I am and you work with neonates.
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Maybe you're an excellent snowboarder and you'd love to share your knowledge.
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This is a really, really great starting point.
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And if you're thinking to yourself, there's nothing that I'm good at, false.
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We all have things that we are good at.
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We all have things that we have improved on.
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It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be something that's true to you.
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In alignment with your niche, you are going to identify your core pillars.
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I recommend that you pick around three to five pillars, but definitely not more than five.
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Again, remember the more niche you are,
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the faster you grow, but I think it can also feel very suffocating when you're doing only one kind of content.
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So pick a couple of things that are important to you.
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Here are my core pillars as an example.
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Your biggest pillar is probably going to be related to what your niche is.
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Now for me, I am a nurse and my husband is a doctor, so healthcare and health and wellness are one of our pillars.
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I'm also a first generation Asian American, which means that a lot of my identity revolves around the way that I was raised, the way
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that we love good deal we love to save our money
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we have stickers on our tvs our remotes that's my second pillar my third pillar is relationship content kevin
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and i have been in a relationship for six years now
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and we love sharing the highs lows all the funny things number four
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i love beauty i love skincare makeup almost every material purchase i've made in my life i regret
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but the one thing i never regret is investing in myself especially
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when it comes to skincare those i would say are my four main ones.
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My fifth one is probably travel.
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As you guys know, I love going to Asia.
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So I love sharing travel guides, travel hacks, and everything in between.
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Now, obviously, as I grow as a person and as a creator,
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these pillars may shift and maybe things that were more important become less important and vice versa.
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And that's totally okay.
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They should be molded to fit you.
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Number two, this might be shocking, but in order to be a creator, you actually do have to post.
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And I hate to break it to you, but you have to stop caring what people think.
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I know you're probably thinking, oh my gosh, what if my extended family sees this?
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My ex -middle school friend?
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They're gonna think I'm so cringey and all these people are gonna be talking bad about me.
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I'm here to bring it to you.
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Yes, they will talk.
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And you know what?
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They're already talking bad about you anyway, so you might as well do what you want.
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There are creators who make enough from one post to pay off an entire down payment, an entire car, a college tuition.
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It won't be cringey then, will it?
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Unless those people with opinions are paying your bills, why are you letting them stop you from getting to your dream life?
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If you feel embarrassed, it's okay.
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Make a new account, block everybody that you need to block, and just know nobody is perfect.
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Nobody is good at everything on the first try.
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If you've ever gone skiing, snowboarding, tried biking, were you doing 360s your first go?
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No. Every time you make a video, good or bad, it'll be a vote towards the kind of creator that you want to be.
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You might not feel like a creator after one video, maybe not even after 10, but after 100, you're gonna improve exponentially.
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Number three, what platform should I be posting on?
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I would say there are three major social media platforms right now.
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YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
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It is my belief that if you are making short form content, these are vertical videos, usually anywhere from three seconds to three minutes long,
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you should be posting on all three.
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You can post the same video on all three platforms,
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and you'd be shocked that sometimes videos that perform very normally sometimes do super well on a different platform,
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but you would never know unless you've reposted that content.
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Now, it can be really time consuming to post these manually, so I personally use a software called Repurpose .io.
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And it actually automates the process from posting from TikTok to Instagram and TikTok to YouTube.
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Now, if you're looking into the future and looking at brand deals and making money in the future,
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my management team told me that 70 % of deals have an Instagram component to it.
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So if you wanna prioritize something in terms of monetization, Instagram is where it's at.
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Now, how often do I need to be posting?
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There's an age old debate about quality and quantity, but when you are just starting, quantity always wins because you don't know what works yet.
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For the first month, I want you to commit to making a video every single day.
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Try all sorts of different videos, editing.
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The good news when you're starting out is that there's no expectations.
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You can try anything and everything and see what sticks.
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Don't delete your videos if they flop.
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This is very important data that you're gonna look at 30 days later.
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If you're thinking, Mickey, I don't have time to film and edit every day.
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First of all, yes, you do.
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How much time do you spend scrolling on social media?
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Replace your consuming with creating.
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The amazing news is that you can actually batch film your content
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so you're not having to film and get ready every single day.
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I usually only film twice or three times a week max.
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I used to only film one time a week.
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So I put on one makeup look.
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I would change outfits in between so that you didn't know they were all filmed on the same day.
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And I would have a week's worth of content done.
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So again, post every single day for 30 days.
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Don't delete anything.
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And also don't review your analytics until after the 30 days so that it's had some time to marinate.
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After the 30 days, then you'll see if there are any trends.
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Did a certain type of video perform better?
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Take your highest performing videos and try to recreate those formats and then do it again for another 30 days
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One of the key takeaways I want you to learn from this video is
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that there are three different types of content I think about them like a venn diagram where all three are intersecting
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There is one content to grow two content to brand and three content for yourself content to grow
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It is exactly what it sounds like these are the videos that are going to get you new eyeballs
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It's going to get lots of views
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and it's going to draw new audiences content to brand this is content
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that your existing community that you already have would care about.
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Perhaps it's getting to know you better, your inside jokes, your pets, your relationship, all the things that make you you
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and make your community feel like they are included in what is your life.
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And number three is content for yourself.
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This is videos and content that you have to make so that you feel fulfilled and happy as a creator.
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Perhaps it's a cat video.
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Perhaps it's the end of year recap.
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Whatever it is that you feel like is important for you to make.
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Have you ever posted a video and then subsequently felt very disappointed by the number of views it had.
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Now let's backtrack.
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If that video was a getting to know me video, content for my community, then I shouldn't have the expectations that it's content to grow,
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that it's going to go viral and bring new eyeballs because that was never the purpose of the video.
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The purpose was to allow the community
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that already existed to get to know me better
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because it is equally important to deepen your reach as it is to widen it.
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Now, if that video was content to grow and it didn't do its intended purpose, then it's also a win because you just found a way
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that it doesn't work and we're gonna try something different next time.
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If you need some video ideas and you don't know what to post, here are some suggestions that I think work for everybody.
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One is some sort of how -to.
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How I got into UCLA, how I got into the nursing program, how I baked sourdough bread, how I learned to snowboard as an adult.
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Tutorials are always a plus.
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Number two, a day in the life but something very specific.
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Day in the life of a nurse, day in the life of an accountant,
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day in the life of a stay -at -home mom juggling four kids.
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Another great tip is that lists and numbers always work.
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Five things I don't spend my money on.
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Three lessons I learned before I turned 30.
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People love lists.
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And when you tell them in advance, oh, there's three things I'm talking about,
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they're gonna be inclined to watch until the end until you get to the last tip.
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And for more ideas, you can always look to your favorite creators for inspo.
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I love to sort their videos by most popular
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and then take some notes on videos that you might be able to recreate with your own spin.
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You can also input information about yourself to ChatGPT or Claude AI, and they will generate so many ideas for you.
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All right, step number five, make your video 1 % better every single time.
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If you make a video every single day for a year straight, then by the end of the year,
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you will be 37 times better than you were when you started.
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That is crazy.
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That's like if you started the year with $100, you would end with $3 ,700.
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Sometimes when the task is too daunting, it feels very overwhelming, but what you can do is just micro changes in every video
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that are gonna slowly inch you towards the kind of creator you want to be.
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Now, there are two main ways to improve your videos.
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Number one is filming and number two is editing.
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You don't need fancy equipment to start filming.
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In fact, I really recommend you just start out with your phone.
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I do recommend getting a tripod.
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This is one of my favorites.
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It's called a Moft and it's MagSafe to the back of your phone.
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What's really great is that you can use it like a tripod this way.
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You can also stand it up so you get a little bit more height
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and your iPhone can also attach horizontally if you want to vlog for YouTube.
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I also recommend getting a big MagSafe tripod so that you can take any videos when you're standing up.
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I take this tripod with me everywhere, even when I travel.
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Another great investment is a selfie light.
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A lot of people call this an Alex Oro light because she uses one for her get ready with me's.
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Lighting makes a really, really big difference on whether or not people want to watch the video.
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Don't start out with a camera setup unless you are already very familiar with cameras
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because you're going to overwhelm yourself with the amount of information that you need to learn.
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Now let's get into the editing because this is where most of the magic happens.
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I feel like it's maybe 25 % filming and 75 % is in the editing.
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Softwares that I personally use and recommend are one, Final Cut Pro and two, CapCut.
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Final Cut Pro is the editing software for Apple computers.
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You may have heard of iMovie before.
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Final Cut is the fancier, more advanced version.
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And CapCut, I'm sure you've heard of.
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I think most creators these days are editing on CapCut.
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The features are incredibly advanced and it is super user -friendly.
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A lot of edits that would otherwise take a long time can be done with a singular button,
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and there are so many tutorials all over TikTok specifically on how to use CapCut.
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Please listen to me when I say this, you need to learn to edit on your laptop.
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I know creators that exclusively edit on their phones, and it wastes so much time.
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Amongst my friends and the people that I work with, I am famous for turning out videos in record speed.
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And you know why that is?
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And that is partly because I edit on my laptop.
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Do yourself a favor and learn how to do it from the beginning.
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Number six, let's talk about the formula for a viral video.
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This works for all platforms.
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And if you understand this concept, you can make any video viral.
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The way that the algorithms work is based on engagement and watch time.
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Let's talk about watch time first.
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You wanna get this number as close to 100 % as possible.
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In fact, some of my videos even have over 100 % watch time.
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How is that possible?
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It means that someone is watching my video on average more than one time.
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And here's how you can get the watch time high.
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Number one, you're gonna keep the pacing fast.
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Most of us have a short attention span, so get to the point.
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Think about what a normal pacing is and then speed it up just a little bit.
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Number two, keep the most interesting portion in the very beginning and the very end.
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The beginning is important to hook them in
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and keep the most exciting part for the end so
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that they have to watch the video all the way through to see the end result.
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Number three, loop the video.
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Have you ever watched a video where the ending
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and the beginning loop back together so you have no idea that you're even re -watching the same video?
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Number four, add closed captions.
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A lot of people when they watch shorts don't have sound on.
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Perhaps they are commuting, maybe they're sitting at work, scrolling their phone, at a dentist's office.
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If I have no sound and there are no captions, I'm skipping the video.
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Number five, sync your scene cuts with the music.
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When you sync your visual and your audio together,
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you reach a flow state and it looks very satisfying to watch and keeps people engaged for longer.
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Once you're done editing the video, watch the video back and ask yourself, if this video came up on my For You page,
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would I stop and like it?
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Or is there anything I can add to make sure I'm more inclined to like it?
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Then you'll know your video is ready to post.
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Now engagement.
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A lot of people automatically think about likes and comments, which are very important.
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But I think even more important than that is saves and shares.
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Is this video so funny that I want to send it to a friend?
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Is it relatable so that I want to send it to my boyfriend?
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Is it so useful that I want to save it for my Japan trip?
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When other people save and share your video, essentially they are spreading that video to a wider reach on your behalf
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so that you don't even have to do it yourself.
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And remember, anytime you are promoting discussion, you will have more engagement.
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There are some topics that just always get people riled up.
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For example, money.
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If you talk about how you split your finances or things
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that you don't spend your money on or things that you love to splurge on.
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Animal videos are another.
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People love cat videos, dog videos.
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If you got a cute animal, use it to your advantage.
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Here are some common mistakes to avoid.
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Lifestyle vlogs with no purpose.
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these really only do well
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if you already have an audience that's highly engaged in who you are and they just love you for you.
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If you don't have an audience yet, lifestyle vlogs typically don't do much for growth.
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Next is content providing no value.
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For example, let's say you're posting a photo of you in a cute outfit.
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That's great and all, but how is that useful to your audience?
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You can add value by sharing where you got those pieces from, tagging the brand.
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You can even include how tall you are so they have context for how it's going to look on their body.
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And perhaps one of the items is on sale and you can share that information.
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Next is not being consistent.
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If you do not have enough data, you're not going to be able to analyze anything and figure out what's working and what's not.
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You have to have enough examples, data, points, so that you can figure out what you need to improve on.
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And then going hand in hand with that is that once you have the data, you need to take that information and adjust accordingly.
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For example, let's say all the videos where you were doing an outfit of the day all performed super well.
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That's a sign that you should do more of those.
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Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
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If the makeup videos didn't do well, either one, stop filming them or two, film them in a different way.
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All right, step number seven is engaging with the community.
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Have you ever commented on an influencer's post or responded to a story and they never respond?
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And you see that they never respond to their comments.
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They never heart any of them.
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You might comment once.
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You might comment twice, but probably think about commenting a third time.
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Don't be that person.
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Engage in your comments, respond to them, like them.
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Nobody likes a creator who doesn't respond.
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And also make sure that you're interacting with your greater community.
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Behave online the same way that you behave in real life.
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Friendly, kind, and involved.
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Finally, let's talk about monetization because I know we all want to hear it.
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No matter what size creator you are, you do have the opportunity to monetize and make money.
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Do I think that that should be your core focus when you start out?
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No. I don't remember exactly how long, but I'm pretty sure for the first two years I didn't get paid a s - single dime.
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And after that, once I started getting paid, I was getting paid very, very, very little, but it was so fun for me.
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I genuinely did not care that I was not getting paid.
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Focus on putting out good content and the money will automatically come.
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But here are some ways you can make money.
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Number one is affiliate income.
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You can start doing this right away.
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I would sign up for an Amazon affiliate account as soon as you can.
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People really appreciate it when you provide links and make it really easy for them to find what you're promoting.
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Now, other great platforms that you can apply for include LTK and ShopMy.
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These include a lot of clothing retailers, Sephora, beauty, makeup, etc. The second way you can make money is through the platforms themselves.
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On YouTube, this is called AdSense.
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On TikTok, this is called the TikTok Creator Rewards Program.
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Now, they both have eligibility requirements that you need to hit before you can apply for them.
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I remember being so diligent making my YouTube videos
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because all I wanted to do was be part of the YouTube Partner Program.
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And I think it's fun that they have these benchmarks that you have goals and things to look forward to.
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When you make a video, there will be ad slots that you can put in and from those ad slots,
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YouTube will take a cut and then you also get a cut.
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Now, not all advertisers are created equal.
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There's what's called RPM or revenue per mile, which is how many dollars you make for every thousand views.
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There are certain niches, certain advertisers that just make more money.
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For example, finance.
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Every time I make a finance video, my RPM is usually double or quadruple what it normally is.
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So you can also keep that in mind when you're choosing your niche.
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And of course, you can make money through brand deals.
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Now that's a whole topic in itself.
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I feel like I could talk for four hours just on how to get a brand deal.
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So let me know if you want to see a video on that.
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I will save that topic for next time.
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Finally, I want to end this video by sharing a story with you.
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When I started out as a creator, the only platform I was on was Instagram.
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I'd actually tried and failed to be a fashion blogger, if you can even call it that.
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People did not care about my outfits and it makes sense because even I didn't really care about fashion.
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So I don't know why I was trying so hard to be something that I wasn't interested in.
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Then a little bit later, I started to share my journey in nursing school.
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And that's how I initially started to gain traction.
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There were a lot of creators around me, a lot of people who are growing much faster than I was.
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And I had slow but consistent growth.
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I was very consistent.
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I always had something going up every single day.
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I worked very hard.
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It took me three years to hit 100k on Instagram.
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But what happened next really shocked me.
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Just a couple months later, I ended up hitting a million followers on TikTok.
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And then two weeks later after that, I hit 2 million.
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The lesson here is to never give up.
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If you love making content, you love making videos, I promise you your time will come.
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You just have to stick with it.
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Evolve, grow, do the best that you can, but just keep at it.
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Believe in yourself and keep trying because you never know.
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You might be one day away from something really, really big.
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I love being a creator.
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I genuinely feel that it was my life's purpose to be put on this earth to make videos.
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You know, middle school, when you have those skits, I was always the person who was doing the photo editing,
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the video editing, and the fact that I get to call it my job now is honestly surreal.
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And I'm really excited to help you do the same.
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I have so much more to share if you wanna learn how to land a brand deal, how to get on PR lists,
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when to get a manager.
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Let me know what kind of videos you wanna see in the comments.
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Give this video a thumbs up if you believe in yourself becoming a creator this year.
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And I will see you guys in the next one.
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Don't forget your 10 out of 10.
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Don't let anyone ever make you feel otherwise.
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And I will see you guys in the next one.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to ACTUALLY become an influencer in 2026”. This video has 346 sentences and 4341 words to shadow. The speech runs for 18:28. The speaker talks fast, about 235 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| creator noun | /kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/ | Something or someone which creates or makes something. |
| edit verb | /ˈɛdɪt/ | To change a text, or a document. |
| niche noun | /nɪt͡ʃ/ | A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament. |
| pillar noun | /ˈpɪlɚ/ | A large post, often used as supporting architecture. |
| nurse noun | /nɝs/ | Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession. |
| outfit noun | /ˈaʊtfɪt/ | A set of clothing (with accessories). |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| consistent adjective | /kənˈsɪs.tənt/ | Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature. |
| shock noun | /ʃɔk/ | A sudden, heavy impact. |
| engagement noun | /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ.mənt/ | An appointment, especially to speak or perform. |
| viral adjective | /ˈvaɪɹəl/ | Of or relating to a biological virus. |
| affiliate verb | /əˈfɪl.i.eɪt/ | To adopt; to receive into a family as one's offspring |
| follower noun | /ˈfɒləʊə(ɹ)/ | One who follows, comes after another. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| pace noun | /peɪs/ | A step taken with the foot. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| start out verb | To emerge suddenly; to jump out. |
| have over verb | To host (a visiting guest) at one's house. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
| pay off verb | To bribe, especially to deter oversight. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Step one, you're gonna pick your niche.
- What unique value can I provide?
- My ex -middle school friend?
- Number three, what platform should I be posting on?
- That's great and all, but how is that useful to your audience?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've always wanted · have been · have improved |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was raised · should be molded · be shocked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | American, which means · comments, which are · mile, which is |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might be · may shift · might not feel |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 104 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shock /ʃɔk/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, caption /ˈkæp.ʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, suggestion /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: affiliate /əˈfɪl.i.eɪt/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like creator, edit, niche.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.